A Hayward police officer was charged with taking bribes — including cash and access to sex workers — to protect the operators of a brothel, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office said.
Benjamin Yarbrough, 48, is accused of leveraging his position to extort $1,000 and free sexual services from an alleged brothel on Main Street in Hayward. In return, Yarbrough allegedly offered to protect the operation, go after its competitors and tip brothel operators off to police activity.
Yarbrough was implicated in a wider San Jose Police Department investigation that targeted illicit massage parlors in the region. During a search of cell phones seized in that investigation, police discovered that Yarbrough had “frequent contact” with Yanqiong Xiong, who was later arrested on suspicion of operating multiple brothels in the area, court records show…