2 Richmond cops linked to Oakland Police Department sex scandal reassigned

Bay City News

Sunday, July 3, 2016

RICHMOND Calif. -- As a Bay Area police sex scandal investigation continues, two Richmond police officers have been reassigned from positions where they interacted regularly with youth, Mayor Tom Butt said in an electronic forum today.

Lt. Andre Hill will no longer serve as manager of the Youth and Special Services Division. Hill also serves as a spokesman for the Police Department.

Officer Jerrod Tong will no longer be a school resource officer. Tong had already stepped down from his duties with the Police Explorer Program. That program aims to create interest in law enforcement among youth.

Tong is listed on the Police Department's website as a school resource officer at Lovonya DeJean Middle School at 3400 Macdonald Ave.

A Livermore police officer, whose name has not been released, is the latest to be investigated in a scandal that has now touched the sheriff's offices in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, San Francisco police, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office and the Defense Logistics Agency, a branch of the Department of Defense.

Investigators are looking into whether the law enforcement officers had a sexual relationship with a woman with the alias Celeste Guap. Guap is now 18, but allegedly was a minor when some or all of the sexual relationships took place.

The scandal started to unfold last September when Oakland police began investigating the suicide of one of its officers Brendan O'Brien.

Butt said in his statement that the Richmond Police Department's Office of Professional Accountability is continuing its investigation into the actions and nature of the relationship the city's officers had with Guap.

Butt added that "there are no early indications of illegal, predatory or like deviant behavior in the performance of duty that suggests the public at large is at risk."

Butt's report of the reassignment of the two officers comes a day after officials with the RYSE Youth Center in Richmond said in a Facebook post that they are distraught that the officers had not been quickly removed from their positions working with youth.

Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said on Facebook that he agreed and added, "These police officers who work with our local schools should be immediately placed on administrative leave while the allegations against them are investigated."

"Respect our youth," he said.

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