4 Fired After Cops Allegedly Had Sex With Teen Sex Worker

Four Oakland police officers are being fired and another seven suspended without pay after a teenage sex worker claimed she had sex with more than a dozen officers, some while she was underage and occasionally for tips about future prostitution raids, the Los Angeles Times reports. According to CNN, the scandal broke last fall when an Oakland police officer killed himself. The sex worker claimed to have had a sexual relationship with that officer while she was 17, and his suicide note named other officers sleeping with her, the Washington Post reports. That launched an investigation that ended up implicating 28 officers across five departments. The Oakland Police Department alone burned through three police chiefs during the investigation.

The four Oakland officers who are in the process of being fired were found guilty of attempted sexual assault, engaging in lewd conduct, assisting in the crime of prostitution, and more. The other seven were found to have failed to report sexual misconduct. An eighth officer must receive counseling and additional training. None of the officers were identified, and a criminal investigation into the allegations is still ongoing. Two of the officers have already resigned. “I am deeply sorry for the harm that this scandal has caused," the Post quotes Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf as saying. (More police misconduct stories.)