Former D.C. police lieutenant Brett Parson, who was arrested in Coconut Creek, Fla., in February for allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old boy, waived his right to attend his April 19 court arraignment after pleading not guilty and requesting a trial by jury in a written motion filed by his lawyer on March 1.

Online records from the Broward County Circuit Court, where Parson’s case is pending, show that the arraignment was held as scheduled. The records show a judge who is not identified in the online records scheduled a follow-up “Calendar Call” hearing for May 20 to allow prosecutors and the defense to deliberate over how to proceed with the case. 

Prosecutors with the Broward County State Attorney’s Office charged Parson with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor following his arrest for allegedly engaging in oral sex with a 16-year-old he met on the Growlr gay dating app, which requires people using the site to be 18 or older. Sources familiar with the app say the age restriction is not enforced.

An arrest affidavit says the 16-year-old told police he and Parson met on the dating app, exchanged “explicit” photos of each other, and arranged to meet at a location in Coconut Creek near where the 16-year-old lived. It says the two, who were in separate cars, drove to a second location in a secluded parking lot around 1 a.m., where the 16-year-old entered Parson’s car and they engaged in mutual oral sex.

After becoming concerned that they might be seen by people in that location, the affidavit says the 16-year-old persuaded Parson that they each drive their cars to another location. While following each other, police in the area saw the 16-year-old drive into a restricted location owned by Comcast, according to the affidavit. It says police stopped the youth and questioned him while officers in a separate car stopped Parson but allowed him to drive away after he told them he was from out of the area and wasn’t sure where he was. 

 Without giving a reason, the affidavit says the 16-year-old provided police with full details of his interaction with Parson that police would otherwise not have known at the time they stopped him for driving into a restricted space.

The affidavit makes it clear that the 16-year-old, who is not identified, consented to the sexual encounter. But authorities point out that Florida’s age of consent is 18 and a minor at the age of 16 or 17 cannot legally consent to sexual acts with someone older than 24 under Florida law.

It says that after questioning the 16-year-old, Coconut Creek police contacted his parents, who requested that charges be brought against Parson. The affidavit says police identified Parson through the 16-year-old’s phone, which he used to exchange text messages and photos with Parson.

Court records show that a judge on Feb. 18, six days after his arrest, set bond for Parson’s release at $25,000 for each of the two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, for a total of $50,000. The Blade couldn’t determine at that time if Parson was able to pay the required 10 percent of the bond at $5,000. A check with the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale where most arrestees are held showed Parson was not being held there as of Feb. 18.

However, the current updated court records show that bond for Parson was posted on Feb. 21, raising the question of whether he was held someplace in custody until that time.

A spokesperson for the Broward County State Attorney’s Office, which prosecutes criminal cases, confirmed that neither Parson nor his attorney attended the April 19 arraignment, but declined to comment further, saying the office never discusses pending cases.

Court records identify Parson’s attorney as Michael E. Dutko, whose law office website says he worked as a Fort Lauderdale police officer and prosecutor prior to starting his criminal law practice. Dutko did not respond to phone and email messages from the Washington Blade seeking comment on the Parson case.

Court records also show that upon his release, a judge ordered Parson to remain in Florida at the residence of his parents in Boca Raton, who he had been visiting at the time of his arrest, while his case remained pending.

Parson served as supervisor for the D.C. police LGBT Liaison Unit and later as head of the division overseeing all the department’s community liaison units before he retired from the force in 2020 after a 26-year police career. At the time of his retirement, he announced he was starting a consulting business to advise law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad on police-related issues.

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee, while saying he could not comment on the circumstances surrounding Parson’s arrest, told the Blade at a press conference in February on unrelated issues that he had worked closely with Parson in past years, saying Parson “served the citizens of the District of Columbia well.”

The Fairfax County, Va., School Board voted 9 to 3 on April 14 to approve the appointment of a new school superintendent for the county school system after more than 200 students, including members of an LGBTQ student group, held demonstrations against the appointment at several high schools earlier in the day.

After a months-long search process, the School Board selected Michelle Reid, the current superintendent of the Northshore School District in Bothell, Wash., a small city located within the Seattle metropolitan area, to replace current Fairfax School Superintendent Scott Brabrand, who is stepping down effective June 30.

The student protesters have joined other community and advocacy groups, including the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP, in expressing concern that Reid’s experience in leading a relatively small school district with about 22,000 students is insufficient to head the Fairfax school system, which enrolls about 180,000 students who come from more diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

School officials and members of the School Board who voted for Reid’s appointment said they were impressed with the knowledge, understanding, and staunch support Reid expressed for policies embracing and supporting a racially diverse school system such as Fairfax County Public Schools.

Reid, a former school principal who holds a doctorate degree in educational leadership, expressed strong support for the needs of LGBTQ and other minority students during her interview process, according to gay Fairfax School Board member Karl Frisch, who voted in favor of Reid’s appointment.

“Throughout all of our interviews with her, Dr. Reid routinely spoke – unprompted – of the ways she addressed the equity needs of her study body – LGBTQIA students, Muslim students, students of color, English language learners, students with special needs, and more,” Frisch said during the April 14 School Board meeting.

“Her commitment to equity and inclusion was a thread woven through her answers, her accomplishments as a superintendent, and her commitments to this Board,” Frisch said. 

Information on the Northshore School District website shows that the district adopted a strongly worded nondiscrimination policy protecting transgender and gender nonconforming students in 2017 during Reid’s tenure as superintendent. Fairfax County Public Schools adopted a similar policy on gender identity nondiscrimination in 2021.

The school system in previous years adopted polices banning discrimination against students, teachers, and other employees based on sexual orientation, which Reid strongly upheld, according to her supporters.

Although the Northshore School District adopted a strongly worded policy banning bullying and harassment of all students, including LGBTQ students, in 2011, new guidelines for updating and enforcing the anti-bullying policies were updated in 2020 under Reid, who began her tenure as Northshore superintendent in 2016.

Aaryan Rawal, a spokesperson for Pride Liberation Project, the LGBTQ student group that helped organize the student protests over the Reid appointment, told the Washington Blade one day before the protests that the Pride group was not aware of any actions taken by Reid against the LGBTQ students, but the group was unaware at that time of any actions she may have taken in support of LGBTQ equality.

Rawal pointed to a letter signed by 375 students sent last week to School Board members and a consulting firm that Fairfax school officials retained to organize a search for the new superintendent explaining the students’ objections to the approval of Reid as superintendent.

“Unfortunately, the voices of the student body were not heard during this search process,” the letter says. It says that while school officials held a 15-day community outreach period that included an 11-member student “stakeholder group,” the group was not representative of the full student body.

In a separate statement, the NAACP said it favored the hiring of another finalist candidate for the Fairfax school superintendent’s job, a Black woman educator and Omaha, Neb., Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Logan, who withdrew from contention for the job on April 9 without giving a reason, according to reports by the Washington Post.  

“The issue we all agree on is that Fairfax County Public Schools needs a superintendent who has commensurate experience in leading organizations of this size, diversity, complexity, and that the Superintendent of Northshore School District isn’t the right fit,” a joint statement released by the NAACP and other groups opposing Reid’s appointment, including Pride Liberation Project, says.

School Board members who supported Reid said she stood out from the pool of 72 applicants, among other things, because of her approach to equity and inclusion, according to FFX Now, the online Fairfax local news site. “Among this large, strong group, Dr. Reid was consistently at the top,” FFX Now quoted School Board Vice Chair Rachna Sizemore-Heizer as saying.

“We asked all of our applicants about how they would heal a divided community,” Frisch told fellow board members. “It says a lot about her character that she told us she would listen and that she would not presume to speak for others whose lived experience is different from her own,” Frisch said.

After two years of COVID-related postponements, the Blade announced last week the return of its popular Summer Kickoff Party in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

The 15th annual event was moved to September due to pandemic restrictions the past two years but this year marks its return to May.

The Rehoboth Summer Kickoff Party will be held Friday, May 20 at The Pines with a special appearance by U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.). More speakers expected to be announced soon.

Tickets are $20 and include drink tickets and light appetizers. A portion is a tax-deductible donation to the Blade Foundation, 501(c)(3). Visit the Blade’s Facebook page to purchase tickets.

Money raised supports the Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship, named in honor of Steve Elkins, a journalist and co-founder of the CAMP Rehoboth LGBT community center. Elkins served as editor of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth for many years as well as executive director of the center before his death in March of 2018.

The fellow covers issues of interest to the LGBTQ community of Delaware for 12 weeks during the summer months. Stories include coverage of legislative and political issues out of Dover; LGBTQ business issues in Wilmington; the summer beach season in Rehoboth and more. Stories are published in the Washington Blade. This year’s Blade-Elkins fellow is Jack Walker, a a junior at Brown University and senior editor of multimedia at The Brown Daily Herald. He begins his fellowship in early May. 

If you are unable to attend you can make a donation to the Blade Foundation at BladeFoundation.org

Sponsors of this year’s event include Delmarva Power and the The Pines.