Alameda County D.A. conducts parallel Oakland police inquiries

The Alameda County district attorney has begun an investigation into the possibility of sexual misconduct by three Oakland police officers and will look at whether the Police Department properly investigated the 2014 shooting death of another officer’s wife, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said Friday.

Suspicions of sexual misconduct by the three unidentified officers — who have been placed on administrative leave — arose in September when the dead woman’s husband, Officer Brendan O’Brien, committed suicide, Police Chief Sean Whent said at a news conference Friday with the mayor.

[...] news has leaked out about the allegations, and as questions have been raised about the police investigating themselves, the mayor called the news conference to announce the heightened level of oversight and to say that officers are held “to the highest standard of conduct.”

Police released a written statement saying they had a receipt corroborating that claim as well as surveillance video placing O’Brien at the store around the time she died.



[...] Friday, regulations required police to notify the district attorney’s office only after concluding an investigation into criminal activity on the part of officers, on or off duty.

The district attorney has begun “a parallel and independent investigation” into the potential sexual misconduct and how the Huerta Lopez death was handled, Schaaf said, noting that it will also look at the Police Department’s investigative process.