BRUNSWICK

A Brunswick police officer has resigned after he was arrested last week on a charge of attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor following a federal investigation.

U.S. Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced Wednesday that Garrett G. Brosnan, 25, of Bath, was arrested Tuesday and charged in U.S. District Court with the criminal complaint.

Delahanty’s office stated that, according to court records, on two occasions earlier this month, Brosnan sent obscene material to an individual who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. In fact, the recipient of the material was an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Brunswick Police Chief Richard Rizzo said Wednesday that Brosnan had been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

On Saturday, however, Rizzo issued a press release announcing that Brosnan resigned from the police department effective immediately.

Brosnan is no longer a town employee and therefore no longer on administrative leave or the subject of an internal investigation, Rizzo told The Times Record on Sunday.

According to an affidavit from investigating Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Douglas McDonnell, the investigation stemmed from a complaint filed with the Flagstaff Police Department in Arizona. The affidavit states that in October 2015, a 13-year-old girl had a five-day online conversation with a man identifying himself as a 19-year-old male, believed now to be Brosnan. The conversation was discovered by the girl’s parents, and her father alerted Flagstaff police on Jan. 15.

The affidavit describes how investigators traced email addresses, online chat accounts, IP addresses and Facebook pages in an attempt to identify the individual, leading them to Brosnan.

An undercover HSI agent posing as a 14-year-old girl began a conversation with Brosnan on Kik, an instant messenger application for smart phones, during which Brosnan allegedly repeatedly asked the agent for pictures.

The conversation became sexual in nature and progressed to the point where Brosnan asked for a picture of the agent without a bra on and stated he wanted to make her pregnant. He allegedly sent two lewd pictures, one on June 2 and the other on June 7, according to the court document.

He also posted a series of short videos of himself on the online service Kik, according to the affidavit.

Brosnan was scheduled to make an initial appearance in the U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday afternoon. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Last week, Rizzo called the criminal complaint against Brosnan a shock.

“The allegations, if true, are extremely concerning, disappointing, and are not in accordance with the high moral standards that I expect of my officers,” he said.

Officers undergo an extensive background investigation which revealed no issues in Brosnan’s case, he said. The department goes to potential officers’ homes, talks to their neighbors, issues an intensive polygraph test and a psychological exam. The administration will be looking at whether there are better ways to do background checks.

Members of the Brunswick Police Department are well-liked and ingrained in the community, Rizzo said.

“This is very unusual,” he said. “It’s embarrassing to me, it’s embarrassing to my officers and it’s embarrassing to the town.”

Asked Sunday where the department goes from here following Brosnan’s resignation, Rizzo said: “We just wait and see how the case proceeds and try to move forward.”

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu