A woman called Lauderhill Police on July 11, 2022, concerned for her neighbor across the street.
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Having not seen Dennis Ionis West in a few weeks, the neighbor told police it was abnormal for the routine-driven 71-year-old who lived alone to stray from his habits, according to a probable cause affidavit. Two officers went to West’s home that day and found he had died of natural causes some time earlier.
When the same neighbor several months later saw renovations underway at the two-story blue home in the 4500 block of Northwest 12th Street, she thought the man she frequently saw outside, wearing a Lauderhill Police officer uniform, was getting his newly purchased home ready, the affidavit said.
But the Broward Sheriff’s Office this week said Officer Brian Sguros, 35, allegedly used West’s identity and acquired his home without any legal authority. He was arrested on five felony charges of official misconduct, criminal use of a deceased person’s personal identification, criminal use of personal identification information, offense against computer user and unlawful use of a two-way communications device.
Court records show that the officer first became involved with West’s home after he responded as a back-up officer to the 2022 wellness check.
By his own account in sworn court filings, Sguros spent over $200,000 fixing up West’s home between August 2022 and February 2025, according to a complaint he filed in a civil case related to the property earlier this year. In the complaint, Sguros contended that no relatives came forward to claim West’s body, that he arranged for West’s funeral services “out of compassion” and that he set out to improve the neglected home out of concern as a Lauderhill officer that it “would become a site of criminal activity and a public nuisance.”
The complaint also maintained that he “did not conceal his presence or activities and did not attempt to hide the improvements he was making” to the home.
Though Sguros did not mention to the neighbor on July 11, 2022, or any officers at the scene that day that he knew West, according to the affidavit, Sguros allegedly represented himself to a Medical Examiner’s Office investigator more than a week later as a friend of the man and said West had no living relatives. Sguros was listed as the informant on West’s death certificate, and several months after the initial death investigation, was legally authorized to release West’s remains to a cremation service business.
Broward County tax records showed that Sguros personally paid more than $20,000 in property taxes between 2022 and 2024 while the property remained in West’s name, in addition to paying about $2,500 in 2024 toward a water utility account that was still in West’s name, the affidavit said.
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Investigators found “a more significant use of West’s identity” after reviewing city building permit records, according to the affidavit. On Aug. 29, 2024, a notarized building permit application for the address that identified the owner as West detailed an $8,000 project to replace doors and included West’s “purported” signature. The phone number provided for the owner belonged to Sguros.
“The document therefore purported to reflect Dennis West appearing, signing the owner’s portion of a building-permit application, and presenting his Florida driver’s license to a notary more than two years after his death,” the probable cause affidavit said.
In early 2025, Sguros and his wife filed an adverse possession claim for West’s property, which stated they took possession of the property Aug. 1, 2022, and described their use of the property as “accommodation,” the affidavit said.
It was that documentation that put the property on the radar of Equinox Realty Holdings, LLC, which then began researching it as a potential investment. The company found that West did, in fact, have several legal heirs, according to the affidavit.
The real estate company owner told investigators that Equinox bought the property interests from West’s heirs and took lawful possession of the property in September or October 2025. The company owner told investigators he did not learn that Sguros is a police officer until civil proceedings related to the property began earlier this year. Prior to learning that, Sguros “represented himself only as a therapist or counselor who had been associated with West,” according to the affidavit.
Equinox Realty’s attorney filed a complaint to Lauderhill Police’s Internal Affairs Division in May, alleging Sguros used information he received in his official duties to take control of the property and informed the department Sguros was pursuing civil remedies related the property, the affidavit said.
Theinvestigation also found that Sguros allegedly used his access to restricted police databases to search for information about West’s driver’s license information and other personal information multiple times between the original wellness check through January 2023, according to the affidavit. Those searches generated West’s date of birth, Social Security number, vehicle and insurance information and emergency contact information.
This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.
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