Nightcrawling

Mottley wrote and published Nightcrawling at a time when police violence and systemic racism were undergoing a period of intense scrutiny in the United States. In the novel’s endnote, Mottley explains that the story is rooted in a real-life sex trafficking scandal involving members of the Oakland Police Department.

The scandal unfolded in September 2015 when officer Brendan O’Brien passed away by suicide, leaving behind a note in which he expressed guilt for having an affair with a teenager. The teen, who used the pseudonym Celeste Guap, was contacted and confirmed the relationship. Guap explained that it began when O’Brien came to her aid one night when a pimp was chasing her. At the time, Guap was an underage sex worker, and O’Brien offered her protection in exchange for entering a sexual relationship with him. Later, it was revealed that other members of the Oakland Police Department engaged in sex with Guap, either paying her or warning her of planned sex-work stings so that she could avoid them. Guap asserted that a total of 28 officers were involved. At the time, the police department was already under federal monitoring due to past corruption (Sidner, Sara. “Sex, Suicide, and Failure to Report: How Oakland Police Scandal Unfolded.” CNN, 25 Jun. 2016).

Criminal charges were filed against seven police officers with disciplinary action sought against several others. As in the novel, news of the scandal led to the resignation of several police chiefs. Later, charges were dropped for some of the officers, and a plea of “no contest” ultimately led to no jail time for the remaining officers (Queally, James. “Charges Dismissed for Ex-Oakland Officer.” Los Angeles Times, 5 Oct. 2017). In 2017, Guap was awarded a settlement of nearly one million dollars (Queally, James. “Accuser in Oakland Police Scandal Settles.” Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2017). In 2019, a heavily redacted report was released by the police department.

In drawing from recent historical events, Mottley faces the challenge of how closely to adhere to facts and details. In an interview, she explained that she “wanted to showcase the real implications of the circumstances Kiara finds herself in, because […] writing about truth means creating honest depictions of the way in which the world functions” (Mann, T. C. “The PEN Ten: An Interview with Leila Mottley.” PEN, 23 Jun. 2022). In this way, though Kiara’s experience is not meant to be a stand-in for Guap’s, Mottley can use it to explore what it means to be exploited and powerless. She emphasizes the importance of a first-person point of view, which centers Kiara’s thoughts, frustrations, and fears in a way that reports of the real-life events do not.