WASHINGTON — A well-known retired D.C. police lieutenant was arrested in Florida over the weekend on charges of unlawful sex with a minor.
Brett Parson -- the former head of MPD's L.G.B.T. Liaison Unit (LBGTLU) -- allegedly met a 16-year-old for sex after communicating on a dating app. Parson, 53, retired as head of the police liaison branch in 2020, but stayed on as a reserve officer. After learning he'd been arrested in Florida on Sunday, an MPD spokesman said the department immediately terminated him.
On Friday, bond was set for Parson at $50,000 - $25,000 on each count of unlawful sex with a minor - with pre-trial supervision. Records show he was booked into Broward County jail. If he is released on bond, he must reside in South Florida until further notice. No contact is permitted with the victim or any minors.
Officers from the Coconut Creek Police Department in Florida say they spotted Parson driving into a restricted Comcast facility with another car. They say Parson told them he was a cop and was lost, so they let him go.
But when they talked to the other driver, they say that driver told them he had met Parson on a dating app -- Growlr -- that they'd gotten together for sex in a parking lot and were looking for a more secluded spot.
After learning the driver was 16, police swore out an arrest warrant for Parson, arrested him at his parents' home in Boca Raton and held him in jail in Palm Beach County.
In Florida, unlawful sex with a minor is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Parson was a well-known police leader in D.C. for decades.
"It's the last thing we would have expected to hear and the last person about whom we would have expected to hear it," said Rick Rosendall, an LGBTQ rights activist in D.C. who has known Parson for years. "This was the very picture of an upstanding citizen. And then this story emerges. It's hard to fathom."
If the allegations are true, Rosendall said he believes it was a mistake. He said a 16-year-old cruising Growlr for sex is a poor choice for a sexual partner, but he does not think he's a victim.
"In that moment at midnight logging on, [adults] are not thinking about how it's going to play on the media, or they would stay at home," Rosendall said. "You know, people are not in their best judgment, their best frame of mind. If they're that lonely, that they're meeting somebody in a car in a parking lot, it's not the smartest version of them that's that's doing this."
WUSA9 has attempted to reach Parson for comment, but has been unsuccessful so far.