The family of a Texas teacher are suing a local police department, claiming that a detective drove him to suicide by unjustly arresting him as part of a sting operation where he posed as a 14-year-old boy on Grindr to catch sexual predators.
Brian Petersen, a 39-year-old junior high school teacher from Conroe, Texas, poisoned himself to death with carbon monoxide just days after being released from the Montgomery County jail in August 2019.
At the time of his death, Peterson was facing a charge of online solicitation of a minor, which is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine. If convicted, he also would have been required to register as a sex offender.
Texas junior high school teacher Brian Petersen, 39 (left), took his own life in August 2019, just days after being arrested by Detective Darrick Dunn (right) on a charge of solicitation of a minor. Dunn pretended to be a 14-year-old boy on Grindr
Petersen left behind this five-page suicide letter, saying he knew Dunn was not a minor from their conversation and his voice memo
Peterson left behind a five-page handwritten suicide note, in which he insisted that he did not believe the undercover cop he was communicating with on Grindr was actually a minor, and said that the accusations against him would ruin his life and career as an educator.
'I am deeply angry at law enforcement as they destroyed me and gave me no other solutions,' Petersen wrote. 'This is the type of accusation that destroys a career and a life, no matter the outcome. I cannot live the rest of my life getting a doubting eye every time I talk to a kid near me. I will not spend the rest of my life barely surviving after losing everything. So, I choose oblivion.'
Petersen, a native of California, claimed in his letter that he was not trawling the gay dating app in search of underage boys, but often encountered adult men who role-played as younger men.
According to the Petersen family's amended federal complaint, the case began unfolding on July 31, 2019, when Peterson came across decorated police Detective Darrick Dunn, 41, on Grindr, where he went by the user name 'Fresh Meat.'
Petersen was a single gay man with a clean criminal record working as a teacher in Conroe, Texas
Dunn indicated that he was interested in meeting Petersen and set up a meeting for the following day.
Petersen was said to have repeatedly asked Dunn to state his age. The first time, Dunn claimed he was 'under 18,' then said he was 14 years old.
The age of consent for sex in Texas is 17.
According to the complaint, Petersen 'was aware that Detective D. Dunn was an adult by the contents of Detective D. Dunn's conversation with Brian, that Grindr does not allow minors, does not allow impersonations, and that Detective D. Dunn sent a voice message to Brian that sounded just like what Detective D. Dunn was - an adult...'
Petersen was allegedly convinced that Dunn was a man his age who was engaging in 'age-play': a practice where gay or straight adults pretend to be younger than they actually are.
When Petersen went to meet Dunn in person the next day, he was surrounded by police and arrested for solicitation of a minor.
'The arrest immediately caused Brian a very high level of anxiety, fear, depression, hopelessness, thoughts of suicide, and other great mental anguish,' the lawsuit alleges.'
Peterson bonded out of jail the following day. Two days later, he went to a store to buy items to commit suicide by carbon monoxide, returned to his apartment and took his own life, leaving behind the five-page suicide letter addressed to his family and friends.
The 39-year-old Conroe Independent School District teacher argued that he was suspicious of the person he was talking to online, who claimed he was a 14-year-old boy who was 'fun and cool.'
Addressing Dunn directly in his final letter, Peterson wrote: 'Having a lot of experience with teens, these mannerisms, amongst many others, made it glaringly obviously clear that you were an adult. I wasn't going to meet a teen.'
Peterson wrote that he asked Dunn to leave him a voice memo on the Grindr app, and once he heard the man's voice, he said he was certain that the person he was going to meet was an adult African-American male and not a minor.
Petersen wrote that the allegations against him would ruin his life and teaching career. The 39-year-old used carbon monoxide to end his life
Douglas Peterson (right), Brian's father, is suing Montgomery County in federal court
'It was almost adorable how funny the message was as a pretended to be a 14-year-old white boy,' Petersen wrote. 'You were, to me, a guy my age role-playing as a younger guy.'
The family's attorney, Randall Kallinen, said the 13-second voice memo could have exonerated Petersen in court, but Conroe police said they no longer have that recording, reported Click2Houston.
According to the federal complaint, a search of Petersen's apartment and his electronic devices yielded no evidence of any criminal activity. Prior to his arrest in August 2019, the veteran teacher had never been in trouble with the law.
Peterson's parents, Douglas and Pamela Petersen, are suing Montgomery County in federal court, claiming violations of civil rights, false arrest and malicious prosecution. They are seeking unspecified damages and attorneys' fees.
'We hope this brings out the truth of what really happened to Brian,' Douglas Petersen said.
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