DA Won't Charge Former Military Guard Tied to Bay Area Police Sexual Exploitation Scandal

San Joaquin County prosecutors have decided not to file criminal charges against a former U.S. military police officer who allegedly tried to exploit the teen at the center of the Bay Area law enforcement sexual misconduct scandal.

The officer, William K. Johnson, became tied to the scandal after news media reports surfaced that Jasmine Abuslin, a teenager who called herself Celeste Guap at the time, was sexually exploited by dozens of law enforcement officers in the region.

Johnson allegedly texted Abuslin to solicit sex in May 2016, days after KRON ran its first news story about the scandal.

He was fired from his position as a security guard for a Central Valley Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) distribution facility months after the military division began investigating him.

"The conduct he engaged in was not only illegal, but it was immoral as well," said Abuslin's attorney, John Burris, in an interview Friday. "At least he has lost has job. Being held to public ridicule and shamed, if you will, is equally significant. Even though he wasn't prosecuted, his conduct itself was exposed."

Not only had Johnson tried to become the teen's pimp, the two had sex while Abuslin, now 19, was working as a sex worker, according to Burris.

"His conduct was egregious," Burris said, adding that his office is still considering filing a lawsuit against Johnson.

In June 2016, DLA confirmed that the agency had opened an investigation into the allegations against Johnson.

A month later an agency spokesman said Johnson was reassigned to administrative duties pending that investigation.

Last December, he was fired from his job. And weeks after that, Tim Daly, a spokesman for the San Joaquin County District Attorney's office, confirmed that his office had begun its own probe.

Daly, in an email to KQED on Friday, said prosecutors had made their decision.

"The office has declined to file charges in this case," Daly said. He referred questions about the case to Chief Deputy District Attorney Kristine Reed, who declined to comment further.

Efforts to reach Johnson were unsuccessful. When reached by the East Bay Express last July, he said he couldn't talk to the media and hung up.

The decision not to file charges comes days after the Oakland City Council voted to approve a $989,000 settlement with Abuslin.

Hours after that vote, Abuslin told reporters she was happy and relieved to have settled her civil rights claim against the city.

Abuslin has said she had sex with some 30 officers in the Bay Area -- some while she was a minor. Along with civil claims, six officers and sheriff's deputies were criminally charged in Alameda County.

In Contra Costa County, a retired Oakland police captain was sentenced to jail and probation after being convicted of charges tied to the scandal.