SAN DIEGO—A former San Diego police detective and three others charged by federal prosecutors with operating massage parlors that offered commercial sex services pleaded guilty April 4.
Peter Griffin, 78, a former vice detective and attorney, owned and operated five businesses in California and Arizona with his co-defendants between 2013 and 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The defendants advertised sexual services online and employed women to perform those services, prosecutors said.
According to a grand jury indictment returned against the defendants, the businesses were located in San Diego, Escondido, Chula Vista, Spring Valley, and Tempe, Arizona.
The indictment states that Griffin was a San Diego police officer from 1975 until 2002, including time in the San Diego Police Department’s (SDPD) Vice Unit, which investigates crimes related to prostitution. Following his retirement from the SDPD, he became a private investigator and operated his business, “Griffin PI,” out of his San Diego home, the indictment states….