A Lauderhill police officer was arrested Oct. 20 after investigators accused him of using a dead man’s identity in an alleged scheme to take control of the man’s home, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Brian Louis Sguros, 35, faces five felony charges, including official misconduct, criminal use of deceased personal identification information and criminal use of personal identification information. The case was investigated jointly by the sheriff’s office and the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office Crimes Against Property Unit.
The case began July 11, 2022, when Sguros responded as a backup officer to a welfare check at a home on Northwest 12th Street in Lauderhill. He found Dennis West dead inside. The medical examiner determined West died of natural causes.
Investigators allege Sguros then posed to the medical examiner’s office as West’s friend and said the man had no living family. They say he used West’s personal information to pay property taxes and utility bills, made it appear the homeowner was still alive and forged West’s signature on a building permit application for repairs. Detectives also said he accessed law enforcement databases to get information about West.
In February 2025, Sguros filed paperwork with the property appraiser’s office saying he had possessed the property since August 2022, weeks after West’s death, the agency said. Investigators found no sign that he knew West before the welfare check.
The Lauderhill Police Department first brought the possible crime to investigators’ attention.
