Attorneys: Teen in police scandal to return to Bay Area after plea deal
A sexually exploited teenager at the center of a Bay Area police scandal is set to be freed from a Florida jail after agreeing to a plea deal that will allow her to return to California after she allegedly bit a guard while in rehabilitation, her attorneys said Wednesday.
The attorneys, Pamela Price and Charles Bonner, said the 19-year-old Richmond woman, who in the past has gone by the name Celeste Guap, would discard the pseudonym, and has aspirations to help rescue other sex trafficking victims in the future.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley is awaiting the return of the teenager as a key witness. Last week, O’Malley announced that her office planned to charge five current and former Oakland police officers, an ex-Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy and a former Livermore cop with crimes related to contact they had with the teenager.
The young woman was arrested in late August on suspicion of felony battery after an incident at a drug rehab center in Florida’s Martin County, but Price and Bonner said she had cut a deal with prosecutors to plead no contest to misdemeanor battery. As part of the deal, the attorneys said, the conviction will be stayed as long as the teenager meets certain conditions.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Attorneys-Teen-in-police-scandal-to-return-to-9222437.php
