I-TEAM EXCLUSIVE: Woman at center of Oakland police sex scandal speaks out

ByDan Noyes KGO logo

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

I-TEAM EXCLUSIVE: Woman at center of OPD scandal speaks out

There's new info in the Oakland police sex scandal -- the woman at the center of it all is telling it all. In an exclusive in-depth interview with I-Team reporter Dan Noyes, Celeste Guap reveals how and why she started having sex with an Oakland police officer at just 16.

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The ABC7 News I-Team has exclusive new information from an interview with the 18-year-old woman at the center of the Oakland police sex scandal. It has spread to more law enforcement agencies, with the latest, Livermore police. It's a story you'll see only on ABC7 News.

The scandal is growing. At this point, dozens of careers are on the line. Officers, sergeants, and captains are under investigation for having sex with a young prostitute; several incidents when she was underage.

In many ways, Celeste Guap is a typical teenager, concerned about her appearance for our interview.

Celeste: "I don't have lipstick on."

Dan: "That's alright. Go ahead."

Celeste: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Dan: That's okay."

But, she has seen more in her 18 years than anyone should in a lifetime. Meet Celeste Guap -- that's not her real name.

Celeste: "Guap means money."

Dan: "Guap means money?"

Celeste: "Yeah, it's slang, like street for money."

Even though her mother holds a good job as an Oakland police dispatcher, Celeste was exposed to drugs and prostitution growing up in Richmond, and then decided to hit the streets herself.

Dan: "Can you tell me at what age you actually took money for sex?"

Celeste: "I was 12 the first time."

Celeste tells me she now works an Oakland street corner, and finds clients on social media.

Celeste says she was 16 when she had sex with her first officer, an Oakland cop, who was her mother's friend.

"And he would tell me, he be like, 'Hurry up and turn, hurry up and turn 18,'" she said. "But I talked him into it. I feel guilty because he was trying to do the right thing."

Celeste tells me two more OPD officers had sex with her when she was underage, as did a Contra Costa Sheriff's deputy. She says the officers told their friends.

Celeste: "I would get texts, you know."

Dan: "Saying what?"

Celeste: "Yeah, 'I'm an Oakland cop, too.' And straight up, they just be like, 'My friend blah blah blah told me about you.'"

Dan: "And you would meet after that?"

Celeste: "Yeah."

Celeste says she slept with "more than 30" in all -- street cops, sergeants, captains, even a police dog handler.

"So I wanted to meet his canine, he did," she said. "There's this one time we did it in the car and he had his canine watching us from the backseat."

Celeste tells me investigators have interviewed her and copied everything on her phone -- texts and chats with officers, even photos of them having sex.

Here's how the police sex scandal is spreading. According to Celeste, it involves:

16 officers from the Oakland Police Department
6 Richmond police officers
4 Alameda County Sheriff's deputies
3 San Francisco cops
1 Contra Costa Sheriff's deputy
1 Livermore cop
1 police officer from the U.S. Military's Defense Logistics Agency, who contacted Celeste after the scandal erupted

It was just a coincidence that the Richmond park I chose for the interview was the same place many cops took her for sex.

Celeste: "Three out of all the 30 paid me."

Dan: "Only three out of the 30."

Celeste: "Yeah, yeah."

Dan: "Why did you have sex with the other ones who didn't pay you?"

Celeste: "I don't know, I just look at them like information. Their perks become your perks, you know."

Celeste showed me texts in which officers appear to tip her off to police operations. One exchange from this past March with a cop she nicknamed "Superman" reads, "Want some advice?" Celeste answered, "Tell me handsome." The response was, "Stay off E14 from Fruitvale to 42 tonight. There's a uc (or undercover) operation."

Celeste also tells me on at least 10 occasions, officers provided police reports or inside information on criminal cases for her and her friends.

And now, she's trying to protect those officers, by refusing to turn over their names.

Celeste: "Even OPD is mad at me because I won't give them everybody, but..."

Dan: "But do you think they're standing up for you in any way?"

Celeste: "No, they all turned their back on me."

Dan: "Yet, you won't give up all the names?"

Celeste: "No."

All this would have remained a secret if an officer had answered a single phone call Celeste placed. Click here for that story.

At least seven law enforcement agencies have launched investigations, but the Alameda County Sheriff is done. They tell me they cleared four deputies who had sex with Celeste, because it was consensual, no one paid, and she was 18 at the time. We'll have more on that in the coming days.

Click here for full coverage on the Bay Area police sex scandal.

Click here for more stories and videos by Dan Noyes and the I-Team.