The Oakland City Council on Tuesday night voted to settle a claim filed by the teenage daughter of a police dispatcher who was the at the center of a 2016 police sex scandal.
The city will pay $989,000 to the 19-year-old, who claimed that Oakland police officers exploited and victimized her in violation of her civil rights. The original claim against the city sought $66 million in damages.
The woman, who formerly went by the name Celeste Guap, accused multiple Oakland officers, as well as officers in other East Bay departments, of having sex with her. Some did so when she was a minor, the woman claimed, and others did so in exchange for having given her confidential police information or protection.
News of the scandal was followed by a shakeup at the Oakland police department. Chief Sean Whent, who headed the department when the scandal broke, resigned, and his replacement, Ben Fairow was fired after five days as interim chief. Two days after that, Fairow’s replacement, Paul Figueroa, went on leave.
The scandal also dragged in the Richmond and Livermore police departments and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office. In all, six former and current officers were charged with crimes in Alameda County, and a retired Oakland captain entered a no contest plea in Contra Costa County.
After the council’s approval of the settlement, one Oakland council member called for changes in the department.
“The magnitude of this scandal, not only the number of officers accused of sexual misconduct but the number that are alleged to have known about it and not done anything, suggests that we need fundamental culture change,” council member at-large Rebecca Kaplan said in a statement. “We need to ensure that we are building the conditions that make it possible to have trust and healing between the community and our law enforcement officers.”
The woman’s attorney John Burris announced a press conference would be held Wednesday afternoon and said his client is “happy to close this chapter of her life and looks forward to the future.”
This news agency is not naming the woman because she is a victim of sexual exploitation.
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