The Parker Police Department on Wednesday released body camera footage from a July 21 traffic stop in which the driver told an officer he was not responsible for the vehicle’s speed, pointing instead to its driver-assistance features.

The footage, shared in a video posted by the police department on Facebook, appears to have been recorded at around 2:34 p.m. that day.

The driver repeatedly denied responsibility for the speeding, according to the footage, and at one point asked to speak with a supervisor. The officer did not appear persuaded by the explanation, and requested the driver’s license before ultimately issuing a speeding ticket.

Parker police said driver-assistance technology is designed to assist drivers, not replace them, and that motorists remain responsible for their vehicles while using the systems.

“Whether your vehicle has adaptive cruise control, lane centering or full self-driving, you are still legally responsible for operating your vehicle safely,” police said.

“That includes obeying speed limits, paying attention to the road and remaining in control of your vehicle.”

While the officer said he wasn’t entirely sure how the system worked, he noted that this wasn’t the first person he had stopped who appeared to be on autopilot.

As electric vehicles continue to gain popularity in Colorado, self-driving and driver-assistance technology is also becoming more common on the state’s roads.

Tesla, for example, has with its Autopilot system since April 2019.

The system includes Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, which matches a vehicle’s speed to surrounding traffic, and Autosteer, which assists with steering within a clearly marked lane while using Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, according to Tesla’s website.

Despite these features, Tesla emphasizes that Autopilot is a hands-on driver-assistance system designed to be used only with a fully attentive driver.

The company’s website states that Autopilot does not turn a Tesla into a self-driving vehicle or make it autonomous.

Drivers are still required to maintain control of the vehicle. Autopilot provides escalating visual and audio warnings when insufficient steering-wheel torque is detected, and repeatedly ignoring these warnings will result in Autopilot being disabled for the remainder of the trip.

This is a developing story and may be updated. 

A Douglas County grand jury indicted Troy Brienzo, 32, on seven felony and misdemeanor charges of unlawful sexual conduct, unlawful sexual contact and official misconduct earlier this year.

He resigned from the Parker Police Department in February after he was put on administrative leave for allegedly violating town and agency policies, including those related to sexual harassment and a

Brienzo on Monday pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual conduct by a peace officer, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, according to court records. Prosecutors dismissed a second unlawful sexual conduct charge and five misdemeanors as part of the plea deal.

In a statement, said what happened represents a serious betrayal of public trust.

“No one is above the law, especially those entrusted with the authority to serve and protect our community,” he said. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to accountability, transparency and upholding the highest ethical standards expected of every member of this department.”

Brienzo is set to be sentenced on Oct. 6. His attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Parker Town Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance Monday that places a nine-month moratorium on the town accepting applications from retailers to establish drone dispatch and delivery facilities.

About 24 hours later, the Castle Rock Town Council passed a similar ban. Castle Rock’s timeout will last six months.

Both towns recently received inquiries from Walmart and Wing about launching a drone operation to make deliveries for the retail behemoth, be it printer cartridges, a banana or a bottle of cold medicine. Wing, which is owned by the Google parent company Alphabet, , including Houston, Dallas and Atlanta.

Drone delivery has yet to take off in Colorado, though it is .

“The town council thinks this is going to happen in the future and we don’t want to be the test case for it,” Castle Rock Mayor Jason Gray said Tuesday. “A lot of people are asking how loud they are, how often they will fly and at what distance around town.”

A glimpse at answers to some of those questions came during Parker’s Town Council meeting Monday night. Town planner Elizabeth Steward told the council that the drones proposed for the town would fly at heights between 150 feet and 400 feet, though they could drop down and hover around 40 feet above the ground when delivering or retrieving items.

The loudest a drone would get when delivering merchandise, she said, would be 62.6 decibels, which sound experts say is .

Councilwoman Brandi Wilks said she worries about how delivery drones might impact wildlife and whether they will conflict with drones the Parker Police Department regularly flies.

Councilman Todd Hendreks said a pause was needed as the town tried to wrap its head around the technology and devise the most appropriate ways to deploy it. The move by both Douglas County towns this week echoed the go-slow approach some Colorado communities have taken recently with other emerging technologies, such as the development of artificial intelligence-driven data centers.

“With emerging technology, since we have really nothing to address this, I think it’s important to give (town) staff time to review and come back to us with whatever they find,” Hendreks said.

Parker plans to hire a consultant to come up with rules for managing delivery drones in town.

Ultimately, though, cities and towns in Colorado are limited in what they can control when it comes to drones. That’s because the Federal Aviation Administration has jurisdiction over airspace, aircraft operations, flight paths, altitude and in-flight noise, according to .

A municipality’s regulatory authority is “generally limited to the land use and site-related aspects of the operation, including where launch and landing infrastructure may be located,” and how the site is designed, the memo says.

Delivery drones in Castle Rock would have to compete with the town’s drones-as-first-responder program, which it launched through its police department last summer.

“The FAA will have ultimate control — we’re hoping we have enough control that we can guide the process as well,” said Gray, Castle Rock’s mayor.

According to , the drone delivery business is poised for robust growth as consumers who shop by smartphone — and from their couches — become hungrier for faster delivery times. The forecasting firm projects that the global industry will grow from just over $5 billion this year to nearly $21 billion in 2034.

The firm said North America “dominated the drone package delivery market with a market share of 35.47% in 2025.”

Gray said it’s one thing when it’s just Walmart flying merchandise to people’s front steps in Castle Rock. But if drones prove popular with consumers, others are sure to get in on the action.

“If we have 18 different retailers doing delivery by drone, I don’t know what that’s going to look like,” he said. “If drones were flying by your house 15 to 25 times a day, my citizens might not like it.”

In May, Walmart , boasting that it is operating the service across 66 stores in four states. Its fastest delivery time so far is 4 minutes and 44 seconds, though the average delivery time for an order is 23 minutes.

Parker Councilwoman Anne Barrington conceded that while the latest wave in shopping convenience is fraught with uncertainty, she has no doubt that it’s coming — and Parker better be ready.

“We’re not saying no — we’re just saying no today,” she said.

The new charges for the 28-year-old Cooper come on top of second-degree felony and third-degree misdemeanor charges filed in Douglas County District Court stemming from his original June 4 arrest. A forensic exam performed on Cooper’s girlfriend after the altercation indicated she had been strangled, according to an updated affidavit obtained by The Post on Friday.

Hours after practicing with the Broncos in a limited capacity Thursday, police arrested Cooper at 6:17 p.m. and booked him at the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office detention facility later that night on misdemeanor charges of harassment and violation of a protection order, according to records.

“We are disappointed to learn of Jonathon Cooper’s arrest on Thursday and continue to review this matter,” the Broncos said in a statement provided to The Post.

Cooper appeared in Douglas County court Friday morning, where Judge Mark Solomon issued a personal recognizance bond of $5,000 for Cooper, after arguments between Cooper’s lawyer Harvey Steinberg and Cooper’s former girlfriend’s lawyer Ronald Gainor about whether Cooper violated a protection order filed earlier in the week.

Solomon ordered that Cooper — identified in court documents as Jonathan Javier Cooper — must have prior approval from the court before traveling outside of Colorado. The Broncos are scheduled to play their first preseason game against the Falcons in Atlanta on Aug. 14.

According to the NFL’s personal conduct policy, players found guilty of criminal assault through an NFL investigation could face a baseline suspension of up to six games. That number can range higher or lower depending on aggravating or mitigating factors the league reviews around the incident.

“We continue to monitor all developments in the matter which remains under review of the personal conduct policy,” NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy told The Post in a statement.

In the original arrest affidavit for Cooper’s girlfriend following the June 4 incident, she told police Cooper grabbed and lifted her by the neck and threw her to the ground several times during their argument at his apartment after she accused him of infidelity. According to an updated arrest affidavit obtained by The Post Friday morning, the woman was taken to the Anschutz Medical Center in Aurora after Cooper’s initial arrest for a forensic examination.

A forensic nurse who evaluated Cooper’s girlfriend reported to police that the woman had experienced “strangulation with hypoxia and traumatic brain injury,” the affidavit reads.

“Regarding seriously bodily injury, it is my medical opinion that the above … patient experienced physical injury which, either at the time of the actual injury or at a later time involved… (a) substantial risk of death (and) a substantial risk of protracted loss or impairment of the function of any part or organ on the body,” the nurse wrote, as the affidavit details.

Cooper originally denied any physical altercation to a responding officer, according to the affidavit. After the officer asked Cooper if he grabbed his girlfriend’s neck, Cooper “nodded his head up and down, coupled with an mm-hmm,” and said he grabbed it “aggressive,” the affidavit reads.

Cooper told police in that same affidavit that both he and his girlfriend had been dealing with emotional stress recently, and that such an incident was an “uncommon occurrence.”

“Cooper questioned where the anger and aggression came from, and when asked, confirmed he’s had two serious concussions in the past, both from football,” the affidavit reads.

A day after those charges were levied, Cooper sent his girlfriend nearly 20 text messages Thursday and called her via FaceTime and a social media platform while she was speaking with an officer, according to a subsequent arrest affidavit. Later in the day, he appeared at her apartment and knocked on the door for five to 10 minutes, the affidavit reads.

Some of the messages are sexual in nature. Cooper repeatedly asked his girlfriend if he could see her, if he could be with her and if she was “scared of the law.”

Cooper’s girlfriend told an officer that his showing up at the apartment made her feel “scared.”

Both Cooper and his former girlfriend had protection orders that prohibited them from interacting after they were both arrested in the June 4 altercation. Steinberg argued in court Friday that Cooper “did not have a no-contact order,” and therefore wasn’t prohibited from going to her house and knocking on her door. Steinberg also called police reporting that Cooper’s girlfriend was scared of him as “sensationalism” and “hyperbole.”

“It’s suggested … in multiple messages that this defendant asked to have sexual contact with (Cooper’s girlfriend) after she was assaulted,” Gainor said in court. “So for Mr. Steinberg or the record to reflect that this was not offensive conduct flies in the face of these messages.”

While prosecutors requested that an ankle monitor be issued to Cooper in light of how quickly he violated the protection order, Solomon declined to do so.

The 28-year-old Cooper is playing the 2026 season in Denver on the second year of a four-year, $60 million contract extension signed in November 2024. He finished second on the Broncos in sacks in both 2024 (10.5) and 2025 (8.0).

He has been with the team across the last two weeks of organized team activities. On Thursday, before Cooper’s second arrest, Broncos head coach Sean Payton told reporters that team leadership had a “long visit” with him.

“Now the process plays out,” Payton said. “The league obviously will be very much involved in that. We’ll stay abreast, but much like you all. I think that¶¶Òőap where it¶¶Òőap at. We just go from there.”

Cooper has a disposition hearing scheduled for July 14 on Thursday’s charge of violating the protection order, and a jury trial scheduled for July 22 and 23 for his original misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief from last week, according to court records.

Cooper initially faced a charge of misdemeanor criminal mischief following an incident with his girlfriend the night of June 4. He now also faces a felony charge of second-degree assault by strangulation and a misdemeanor charge of third-degree assault — knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury. The charges were announced Wednesday in Douglas County District Court, according to court records. Cooper pleaded not guilty in court on Monday morning to the original charge, with a trial scheduled in late July.

The Post has reached out to Cooper’s attorney Harvey Steinberg and spokespeople for the Broncos and the NFL for comment.

Cooper and his girlfriend got into an argument on June 4 after she accused him of cheating on her and a physical struggle broke out, according to each of their arrest affidavits. But each of them described their argument differently.

Cooper told police he’d grabbed his girlfriend by her upper arms to retrieve his phone, and that he bit her phone and caused “disabling damage,” as his affidavit reads.

In her own arrest affidavit, Cooper’s girlfriend told police that he had “grabbed her by the neck with one hand” and lifted her against the wall for approximately one minute. Cooper’s girlfriend also alleged that he threw her to the ground approximately three times, as the affidavit reads.

At the time, the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit that they observed a “small mark” on Cooper’s girlfriend’s neck and scratches on her arm, but the officer wrote in the affidavit that it did not seem consistent with a man lifting the woman by her neck as she told the officer Cooper had done to her.

Cooper was at Broncos practice on Thursday during the team’s second week of OTAs, and has been on the field since Monday. Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Thursday that team leadership had a “long visit” with Cooper about the incident, and that the league will be “very much involved” as the legal process continues.

“We’ll stay as informed as possible,” Payton said Thursday. “We’ll follow the league’s guidelines, and I’m sure a lot of that will be led by the local authorities’ guidelines. We’ll pay attention to all of it.”

The states that the league office will begin an investigation when it becomes aware of any possible violation of that policy, which includes criminal proceedings for incidents involving assault or physical violence against another person. If Cooper is found guilty of criminal assault under any NFL investigation, he could be subject to a six-game suspension, according to league policy.

Cooper, 28, will play in 2026 on the second year of a four-year contract extension worth up to $60 million and signed in November 2024. He has established himself as a key starter on Denver’s defense, finishing second on the team with eight sacks in 2025.

Cooper, 28, and his girlfriend were arrested last Thursday and charged with criminal mischief as a crime of domestic violence after Parker police officers responded to reports of a “domestic incident” between the two late that night. The charge has different severities based on the amount of damage caused, resulting in a misdemeanor-level charge for Cooper and a petty-level offense for his girlfriend.

The football player’s case is scheduled to go before a jury in late July, according to Douglas County court records. During Monday’s disposition hearing, Cooper pleaded not guilty to the criminal mischief charge, and a motions hearing was scheduled for July 6. The jury trial is expected to begin on July 22.

Harvey Steinberg, Cooper’s attorney, said the defense team doesn’t intend to file any motion to dismiss and wants the case to be heard by a jury. Steinberg pushed for a trial “as early as possible” during Monday’s hearing to avoid affecting Cooper’s employment as a football player.

The 2026 NFL season officially starts in September, but the Broncos will play preseason games as early as Aug. 14 and training camp begins the last week of July.

Cooper has become an important pass-rusher on the Broncos’ defense across a five-year tenure in Denver, originally drafted in the seventh round in the 2021 NFL Draft. In November 2024, he signed a four-year contract extension worth $33 million in guaranteed money and up to $60 million in total value.

“He’s consistent,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said of Cooper in August 2025. “He’s the same guy every single day. He’s the fire starter for our defense. He’s physical. He’s a better rusher than people think he is. He’s a really good football player, and that¶¶Òőap the kind of guys we have on our team.”

After recording a career-best 10.5 sacks in 2024 and another 8.0 sacks in 2025, Cooper stands to make a total of $12 million in total cash payout this season in Denver. The Broncos typically begin training camp in late July, meaning Cooper’s trial could take place just before the team reports back to the facility for the start of the 2026 season.

Cooper was arrested in Parker shortly after 11:15 p.m. Thursday and booked into the Douglas County jail roughly three hours later, according to inmate records. His girlfriend, whom The Denver Post is not currently identifying, was also arrested.

The girlfriend told police that she had confronted Cooper about cheating allegations, which led to a fight over his phone, according to the pair’s arrest affidavits.

Neither party was charged with harassment or assault because there was “no probable cause 
 given the conflicting statements and lack of specific physical evidence,” Parker police wrote in Cooper’s affidavit.

Cooper’s girlfriend took his phone from him, threw it across the room and then went to pick it up and look through it, according to both affidavits. That¶¶Òőap where their stories split.

Cooper, wanting his phone back, told police that he grabbed his girlfriend by her upper arm and took it, according to his affidavit. He also told police that he “braced his neck against her neck” to prevent her from getting it and admitted to threatening to break his girlfriend’s phone if she didn’t leave his apartment.

But his girlfriend told a separate officer that the football player had “grabbed her by the neck” and held her up against the wall, according to the affidavit for her arrest. Cooper’s girlfriend also said he picked her up and threw her back on the ground several times and punched the wall “next to her face.”

When she didn’t leave, Cooper bit her phone, damaging it, according to both arrest affidavits.

Officers noted in the affidavit that the girlfriend’s injuries didn’t quite match her claims, observing a small mark on her neck, scratches on her arm and a small cut on her hand. Those injuries “did not appear consistent with a larger male lifting (her) up into the air by her throat as well as repeatedly being thrown to the ground,” police said.

As of Monday morning, the girlfriend was next scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial conference on June 16.

The crash happened near South Chambers Road and East Mainstreet at 1:14 p.m. Wednesday, according to South Metro Fire Rescue. By 2:45 p.m., the , although officials noted that “a lingering gas smell may be present in the area.”

between Mainstreet and Cosmopolitan Circle for the crash investigation, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The sheriff’s office originally issued the order for a half-mile radius from 10759 Tomboy Drive, including parts of Newlin Crossing, Sierra Ridge and Meridian Village neighborhoods. Pine Grove Elementary School was also ordered to shelter in place and had a controlled release of students, .

Residents near the leak were asked to stay inside with their windows closed, turn off their heating and cooling systems and avoid any activity that could cause a spark, South Metro officials said.

Paramedics took two people to hospitals for evaluation, . It’s not clear if they were involved in the crash or were nearby residents.

Information on the cause of the crash was not immediately available, but photos shared by South Metro officials showed a red pick-up truck had gone off the right side of northbound Chambers and

Robert Dial, 62, won $22 million in economic damages and another $2 million for pain and suffering after he sued former Detective Shannon Brukbacher over his 2022 arrest on felony charges of tampering with evidence, his attorneys David Maxted and Kathryn Stimson said Tuesday.

The criminal charges were dismissed five months after Dial’s arrest, but not before he lost his job and reputation, the attorneys said. They sued Brukbacher in 2024 and the jury delivered a verdict late Monday after a five-day trial in Douglas County District Court.

“This is vindication for him,” Maxted said of Dial. “This basically completely clears him and indicates she maliciously prosecuted him and is liable for what happened.”

Brukbacher’s attorneys did not return requests for comment Tuesday.  A spokesman for the Parker Police Department did not return a request for comment. Andy Anderson, communications manager for the town, said in a statement that the town is reviewing the case and considering whether to appeal.

“While the Town is disappointed with the verdict, we respect the judicial process,” Anderson said in the statement. “However, we believe the evidence presented in the case warranted a different outcome.”

Jurors considered Dial’s lost earnings as an investment manager to reach the $24 million mark, Maxted noted.

“The Town of Parker had a city attorney there throughout the trial,” he said. “So they have known this is a big problem and there has just been a refusal to take accountability. So we had to have a jury trial. And a jury did what juries do: They found her accountable.”

The case began on Feb. 15, 2022, when Dial’s son, Cameron Dial, got into a confrontation with his roommates at the Stone Canyon apartments on Cottonwood Drive. Cameron Dial shot both roommates, killing one man and wounding a woman.

Cameron Dial lives with a “significant learning disability,” and often relies on Robert Dial for help with daily living, according to the lawsuit. He called his father in a panic and confessed to the shooting immediately after the attack. Robert Dial was in New Jersey at the time, but told his son to call for help. Robert Dial also said he’d hire an attorney for his son and went on to do so.

Robert Dial spoke with Brukbacher later that day and told the detective he’d hired an attorney. Dial’s son declined to speak with police until he first spoke with his attorney. Brukbacher became irritated by the development and continued to try to get information from Robert Dial about the incident, urging him to “be an adult,” the father’s attorneys claimed in the lawsuit.

The woman who was shot later told the police detective that Robert Dial instructed his son to hide the gun after the shooting. The woman told the detective that Cameron Dial might have hidden the gun in a closet or in the laundry room, and that Cameron cut holes in the walls of the apartment to hide things in what Robert Dial’s attorneys said was a “bizarre and untrue monologue.”

The gun was not hidden when police officers arrived at the scene. They immediately found the weapon, which was in plain view in the hand of the slain man, according to the lawsuit. The woman made a number of demonstrably false statements about the attack and had a history of being unreliable to the point that Brukbacher should have known she was not a credible witness, Dial’s attorneys alleged.

Brukbacher nevertheless authored a misleading and false affidavit charging Robert Dial with two felony counts of tampering with evidence based on the woman’s claim and arrested Robert Dial, according to the complaint. In the affidavit, Brukbacher said the woman had a “very clear memory of what happened,” although the woman herself described being “super in and out of it” during the shooting.

Jurors on Monday found Brukbacher liable for a false arrest and for malicious prosecution, Maxted said. Court records reflecting the verdict were not immediately available Tuesday.

Cameron Dial, now 32, was charged with first-degree murder. He took the case to trial and the jury could not reach a verdict, Maxted said. Court records show the son later pleaded guilty to the lesser charges of reckless manslaughter and attempted reckless manslaughter.

During Cameron Dial’s jury trial, the judge paused the proceedings and excused the jury while Brukbacher was on the stand in order to admonish the detective to testify truthfully, according to the lawsuit.

Brukbacher retired from the Parker Police Department in 2024 after spending more than two decades on the job, the . She remains a certified police officer but is unemployed, according to records kept by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

The 23rd Judicial District Attorney’s office has begun the process of making credibility notifications about Brukbacher in cases in which she is endorsed as a witness in the wake of the civil verdict, spokesman Tom Mustin said in a statement Tuesday.

The verdict should put all Colorado police departments on notice, Stimson said.

“All the time across the country people are arrested for crimes they didn’t commit and prosecuted,” she said. “Their lives and careers are destroyed and prosecutors and police don’t care. They should make sure that there is probable cause every time they bring a case.”

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.

Sgt. Troy Brienzo faces two felony charges of unlawful sexual conduct, one misdemeanor charge of unlawful sexual contact and four misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, court records show. The charges stem from incidents involving two unidentified victims, both adults, .

Brienzo, 31, was taken into custody on the charges on Friday, Parker police officials said.

“Due to the pending grand jury investigation, we were not at liberty to release a more detailed statement earlier,” officials stated in the release. “We recognize the seriousness of these charges and remain committed to transparency, accountability and maintaining the trust of the Parker community. As this is now an active criminal case, no further details will be released at this time.”

An arrest affidavit obtained by The Denver Post on Monday lays out some of the actions Brienzo allegedly took. A witness in the investigation reported that Brienzo said he was having “inappropriate thoughts” and “hooking up with certain individuals at the police department.”

An unidentified victim told investigators that Brienzo had them in his car on a ride-along, during which Brienzo told them that his relationship with his girlfriend was in trouble. Brienzo told the alleged victim he had a fantasy of having sex with someone in the back of his patrol car. The victim said they wouldn’t do so because Brienzo was an “advisor in a mentor position.”

The affidavit was heavily redacted and the sex of the alleged victims was not disclosed. It was also not clear from the document what professional relationship Brienzo had with his alleged victims.

The first victim said Brienzo repeatedly wanted to talk about sex and asked for a naked picture of the alleged victim, which the victim refused.

According to the affidavit, Brienzo told his ride-along partner: “How fire would it be if I were to have a rider and I could just reach my hand over and start touching them?” The affidavit describes Brienzo performing inappropriate pat-downs of the alleged victim back at the police station late that night.

The document also states that Brienzo had sex in his patrol car with another person who was on a ride-along with him.

As of Monday, Brienzo still appeared as a certified officer in the , though his profile notes he resigned while under investigation and is the subject of a criminal charge.

Brienzo will next appear in court on April 13 for an arraignment hearing, according to Douglas County records.