A Lauderhill, Florida, police officer accused of scheming to take control of a dead man’s home claimed to be his therapist and counselor.
Brian Sguros, 35, responded to the home of Dennis West, 71, 25 miles north of Miami, in July 2022 for a welfare check and found him dead.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office alleges that Mr. Sguros then represented himself as a friend of West and tried to take control of the home.
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The owner of a realty company that Mr. Sguros filed a suit against this year told investigators that he initially hid his status as a cop, claiming instead to be a “therapist or counselor who had been associated with West,” according to the arrest affidavit as cited by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The real estate company, Equinox Realty Holdings, bought West’s home from his heirs in 2025 after Mr. Sguros filed an adverse possession claim with the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office to try to gain official control of the property.
The company became aware that Mr. Sguros was a cop only when he filed a lawsuit seeking financial compensation.
In the suit, Mr. Sguros said he arranged West’s funeral “out of compassion and civic responsibility” and that he began cleaning up and renovating the home to “prevent squatters from taking control of it,” according to court documents.
Naomi, a West neighbor who provided only her first name, told Miami’s WSVN that Mr. Sguros told her and her family that he planned to turn the residence into an Airbnb.
Mr. Sguros said in his suit against Equinox Realty Holdings that he invested $214,000 into the once-dilapidated property and raised its value to $500,000. He also accused the company of seeking “unjust enrichment” by buying the home without giving him compensation for the money he put into it, according to court documents.
The realty company in turn informed the police department of the alleged scheme, claiming that Mr. Sguros, who began working for the department in March 2021, used inside information from police databases to try and gain control of the property, according to the affidavit as cited by the Sun Sentinel.
The Lauderhill Police Department put Mr. Sguros on unpaid leave Tuesday following his arrest, according to South Florida’s WPLG. He previously was put on paid leave when the investigation into his alleged actions began in July. He bonded out of jail for $25,000 Wednesday.
“Every officer in this Department swears an oath to protect the people of Lauderhill, including those who can no longer speak for themselves. As soon as this complaint reached us, we opened an investigation and brought in outside partners to follow the facts wherever they led. Wearing this badge does not put anyone above the law, and we expect our officers to live up to that oath every day,” Lauderhill Police Chief Constance Stanley said, according to the Miami Herald.
Mr. Sguros is facing charges of official misconduct, criminal use of deceased personal identification, criminal use of personal identification information, offense against a computer user and unlawful use of a two-way communication device, the sheriff’s office said.
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