Criticism over scandal probe
Oakland police, city leaders ripped in report on internal investigation
Detectives and top brass of the Oakland Police Department conducted a careless and hasty investigation into allegations that officers had sex with a minor, and kept the mayor, city administrator, district attorney and others in the dark, according to a report released Wednesday about the sexual exploitation scandal that rocked the city last year.
The report, produced by court-appointed investigators, also faulted top leaders at City Hall — Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth — for failing to adequately review the Police Department’s handling of the case after questionable practices were brought to their attention.
The allegations of sexual misconduct first came to light in September 2015, when Oakland Officer Brendan O’Brien killed himself and left behind a note detailing his and other officers’ contact with the teenage daughter of a police dispatcher — a copy of which was reviewed by then-Police Chief Sean Whent, an assistant police chief, a deputy chief, the criminal investiga-
tions commander and the homicide division lieutenant, according to the report.
From the outset, “Whent sent an unmistakable signal that this case was not a priority,” and “did nothing to ensure the allegations were being investigated appropriately,” the court-appointed investigators, Edward Swanson and Audrey Barron, wrote in their report.
The tone permeated down to the investigative level. Two probes opened into the matter — one by detectives to determine any criminal wrongdoing, and another by internal affairs investigators — were both “wholly inadequate,” the report said.
The criminal investigation was closed after one week and one interview with the teenager, who called herself Celeste Guap and now goes by Jasmine. The internal affairs probe, meanwhile, downgraded officers from “subjects” of the investigation to “witnesses” and concluded that just one of them should be disciplined.
“It’s shocking — some of the details of the lack of aggressive investigation by the department and the internal affairs section,” said John Burris, the civil rights attorney who represented the teen and helped her win a nearly $1 million settlement from the city. “We had the impression that victims who went to internal affairs would be treated fairly and equally, and clearly that wasn’t the case.”
The investigations were deficient in part because of “bias against the victim ... who initiated contact with the officers in question, who was involved in prostitution, and who used drugs and dealt with mental health issues,” Swanson and Barron said.
Whent later blamed “drinking and rookie recruitment” for the department culture in a conversation with City Attorney Barbara Parker, according to the report. He also pressured an internal affairs commander to end the investigation.
The internal affairs investigator in charge of the sexual misconduct case worked with almost no supervision, spoke to the teen just once by phone, gathered no electronic evidence, ignored leads and brushed aside the advice of a deputy city attorney, Swanson and Barron said.
During an interview with the young woman, investigators leading the criminal probe did not stop her from deleting conversations she had with at least six officers on her phone — messages that may have included evidence of illegal acts, the report said.
In the presence of investigators, she “began deleting her messages with officers, covering the names of the individuals but stating they worked for OPD.” After one investigator asked her to stop, she “continued to delete the messages, counting out the officers one by one as she deleted her messages with each . ... Finally, the second investigator changed the subject, and (the teen) turned her focus away from her phone.”
One investigator called the teenager a “whore” while questioning an officer suspected of having sex with her. And one witness recalled that Whent called the case “bull—,” according to the report.
Schaaf and Landreth found out about the sexual misconduct allegations six months after the investigations were opened.
Whent abruptly resigned last June and was succeeded by a merry-go-round of department leaders over the following two weeks. Landreth oversaw the agency for eight months without a chief before Anne Kirkpatrick was sworn in as top cop in February.
The federal judge who has overseen the Police Department and its court-ordered reforms for more than a decade tapped Swanson and Barron to step in after an outside investigator hired by Schaaf to review the case failed to interview any witnesses or issue any findings or reports, even though she and her assistants were paid by the city for their work.
“Despite the fact that the investigation stalled, the City Administrator and the Mayor did not press the investigator to find out whether OPD’s investigation was conducted appropriately, nor did they inquire as to the status of the attorney’s investigation,” the report said.
The report suggests that federal oversight of the Police Department — which has cost the city more than $13 million in the wake of a landmark civil rights settlement stemming from the Riders policeabuse scandal — is not likely to end anytime soon.
It was only after the department’s court-appointed monitor began to hear “rumors” and stepped in that any meaningful investigation was done — six months after O’Brien’s suicide. Ultimately, 12 officers were disciplined and four were charged by Alameda County prosecutors.
“The fact that Court intervention was required to ensure OPD conducted a thorough investigation and to alert the DA to the allegations also casts doubt on whether OPD’s reforms are sustainable in the absence of court supervision,” Swanson and Barron said.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Schaaf, Landreth, Kirkpatrick and Parker said they were still reviewing the report and planned to implement its recommendations, but they largely defended their own actions.
The police chief insisted she had full confidence in her command staff, despite the involvement of some in the investigative failures highlighted in the report.
Parker said she wasn’t familiar with a rule requiring police officials to notify the district attorney’s office as soon as officer misconduct is suspected. One of her deputy city attorneys was advising the internal affairs investigator beginning in October 2015 — months before prosecutors learned of the case.
Schaaf and Landreth said they didn’t follow up on the outside investigation because they were focused on the aftermath of the Ghost Ship warehouse fire and didn’t want to infringe on officers’ due process rights.
“Did things move a little bit more slowly than we wanted them to? We agree,” Landreth said. “But we didn’t want to do anything that was going to compromise our ability to hold these police officers accountable.”