Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley continues filing the formal criminal charges already promised against seven East Bay law enforcement officers, with three more officers charged on Monday. As KQED reports, those include Oakland Officer Brian Bunton, who's charged with felony conspiracy to obstruct justice, as well as engaging in prostitution; Oakland Officer Giovanni LoVerde, who's charged with felony oral copulation with a minor; and former Contra Costa Sheriff’s Deputy Ricardo Perez, who's charged with oral copulation with a minor and two misdemeanor counts of engaging in lewd conduct in a public place.
The charges follow two other officers being charged late last week in the far-reaching scandal centered on a single young woman, now identified as 19-year-old Jasmine Abuslin, who will now also be the subject of multiple civil suits being filed by attorneys Pamela Price and Charles Bonner. The first of those suits, against the City of Oakland, was filed Friday a $66 million damages suit that is a precursor to a civil rights complaint.
Officer Bunton, whom Abuslin allegedly referred to as "Superman," was charged in connection with allegedly tipping Abuslin off about an upcoming undercover prostitution sting in the vicinity of East Oakland where she had been performing sex work, in exchange for sexual favors. The tipoff was found in the form of a text to Abuslin, and was one of the incendiary accusations that first surfaced in June in connection with this scandal.
Meanwhile, Officer Giovanni LoVerde denied having any contact with Abuslin except on social media, but he's now being charged with meeting her for a blowjob in the doorway of a home near Lake Merritt in July 2015, a month before she would turn 18.
Deputy Perez admits having sex with Abuslin, but claimed that all of his sexual contact was after her 18th birthday. The DA's office believes, perhaps via Abuslin's own testimony, that Perez "engaged in at least one sex act, oral copulation, with the subject when she was 17 years old in a public place." He also allegedly had sexual contact with Abuslin 10 times in a public place, an unknown location near Fish Ranch Road in the Oakland Hills. Perez says that his first sexual contact with Abuslin was "between 5 to 7 days after 18, August 2015," i.e. after her 18th birthday.
As ABC 7 notes, felony oral copulation with a minor could come with a three-year jail sentence.
Related investigations remain open in Contra Costa and San Francisco counties, and more charges are still likely to come.
Also, O'Malley still has charges to file, likely this week, against Oakland Officer Warit Utappa, who's accused of searching official criminal justice data and computer systems for an unauthorized purpose; and former Oakland Officer Tyrell Smith, who resigned in May, who's facing four counts of the same crime.
All previous coverage of the Celeste Guap/Jasmine Abuslin scandal on SFist.