A former Parker police sergeant who was indicted last week on charges of unlawful sexual conduct is accused of soliciting sex from two young adult mentees in the department’s youth program, according to court documents.
Sgt. Troy Brienzo, who resigned while under investigation in February, was indicted on two felony charges of unlawful sexual conduct and five misdemeanor charges, including one count of unlawful sexual contact and four counts of official misconduct, court records show.
The charges stem from incidents involving two unidentified victims, both adults, according to a heavily redacted grand jury indictment acquired by The Denver Post on Monday.
However, a obtained by shows both victims were enrolled in the Parker Police Department’s . The job-shadowing program for youths aged 14 to 20 allows participants to gain hands-on experience with officers who advise the program. was one of those advisers and previously .
Douglas County Combined Courts Clerk Andi Truett said her office only released one version, with redactions matching those in The Denver Post’s original copy. Blue Surveillance President Andrew Fraieli said he received his copy directly from the 23rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Brienzo’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Relationships between Explorer Program mentees and officers must be professional in nature only, according to the program’s rules of conduct.
But an unidentified girl in the Explorers Program reported Brienzo in January for violating that policy, according to the grand jury indictment. A second victim, a girl who had aged out of the program but was involved with both it and Brienzo in previous years, was identified during the investigation, the indictment stated.
The names and ages of both victims were redacted in both copies of the indictment.
One of the girls reached out to Brienzo after an explorer training on Jan. 3, according to the indictment. Program advisers at the training had said some explorers were being “rude and ungrateful,” and she told Brienzo she wanted to ensure that she had not given that impression, the indictment stated. Brienzo offered to take her on a ride-along that evening to discuss her concerns and told her not to wear her uniform, according to the document.
Brienzo did not notify dispatchers or update his systems to indicate that he had an explorer riding along with him, both of which are standard procedure, according to the indictment.
The sergeant spent the ride-along talking about his relationship issues and sexual fantasies, the indictment alleged. He asked the explorer whether asking whether she wanted to have sex in the back of his patrol car would ruin their relationship, according to the indictment. She said it wouldn’t, but that she would turn him down because he was an adviser in a mentor position.
“How fire would it be if I were to have a rider and I could just reach my hand over and start touching them?” Brienzo then asked, according to the indictment. He told the explorer that he found her attractive when she first joined the program at 16 years old and asked whether she would give him a naked photo of herself, the indictment stated. She declined.
He asked if he could take her into a room at the Parker Police Department and search her, take off her clothing and touch her sexually, according to the indictment. She declined, but eventually agreed to an over-the-clothes search “if that was going to be enough for him.”
The explorer did not believe that Brienzo would place his hands under her clothing, but he did and groped her, the indictment alleged. He also moved her hands to his body and made her touch him sexually, according to the document.
He then drove her to an empty lot and asked to perform oral sex on her, which she refused, and said it would be “hot” if she came to his hotel room during the next explorer competition in Arizona. The explorer said this “freaked her out” as “she believed there was nothing she could do because Brienzo was a sergeant and she was not,” the indictment stated.
She reported the incident, and Brienzo was placed on administrative leave on Jan. 7. He resigned from the department while under investigation on Feb. 13.
As of Wednesday, Brienzo remained listed as a point of contact for questions .
“I’m (expletive), I’m losing my job,” Brienzo said in a phone call to a fellow Parker officer and friend after being placed on leave. He claimed all contact between him and the explorer was consensual and part of a normal weapons pat-down.
A second victim identified during the investigation said she and Brienzo had sex in the back of his patrol vehicle during a ride-along while parked outside of Legend High School. Their sexual relationship ended when she left the program, according to the indictment.
“Sexual misconduct is any sexual activity while on-duty or stemming from official duty,” the indictment stated. “Sexual misconduct of any nature while on duty is prohibited.”
Brienzo is next scheduled to appear in court on April 13 for an arraignment hearing, according to Douglas County court records. He posted bail on April 4.
