Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland city officials early Wednesday approved a proposal to pay nearly $1 million to the teen daughter of a police dispatcher who said she was sexually abused by officers while she worked as an underage prostitute.
The teen, now 19, claims she had sex with two dozen San Francisco Bay Area police officers, some when she was younger than 18. Prosecutors have charged six current and retired officers for their alleged involvement with the teen, including several from Oakland. Two have pleaded guilty.
“It is time to pay the settlement agreement to let this young woman get on with her life and her healing, but also for Oakland to step up and change the culture in the police department and change how we recruit and train our officers,” Oakland Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said in a statement.
The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify victims of sexual crimes.
The woman’s allegation has roiled the Oakland Police Department, which cycled through three police chiefs in under two weeks before the city administrator took over the department when the scandal became public in June 2016.
The council voted 7-1 early Wednesday morning on the city attorney’s recommendation to pay $989,000 to settle the teen’s claims. The teen’s initial claim sought $66 million.
“The settlement occurred with no admission of liability, but obviously if you pay $1 million, you figure you got some responsibility,” said Oakland attorney John Burris, who represented the teen.
Burris said she still has claims pending against the cities of Livermore and Richmond and Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The scandal surfaced after a federal judge who monitors the long-troubled department ordered internal affairs to look deeper into an officer’s suicide note in which he discussed his and colleagues’ relationship with the woman. The officer killed himself in September 2015.
The woman has said she is no longer a prostitute.