佛罗里达州警官被指霸占并翻修死者住宅，治安官办公室称布劳沃德县治安官办公室逮捕了警官布赖恩·斯古罗斯，指控他在一次福利检查中发现男子死在家中后，冒用该男子身份。
Florida Police Officer Seized and Renovated Dead Man’s Home, Sheriff Says The Broward County Sheriff’s Office arrested the officer, Brian Sguros, alleging that he used the man’s identity after finding him dead at home during a welfare check.
2022年7月11日，警官布赖恩·斯古罗斯和一名搭档响应福利检查呼叫，前往位于迈阿密以北的劳德希尔市一条支街上的一栋蓝色两层楼房，检查一名独居的71岁男子。一名邻居报告称，她约两周未见到该男子丹尼斯·I·韦斯特。
On July 11, 2022, Officer Brian Sguros and a partner responded to a call for a welfare check on a 71-year-old man who lived alone in a blue two-story house on a side street in Lauderhill, Fla. A neighbor reported that she had not seen the man, Dennis I. West, in about two weeks.
抵达房屋后，警官们发现韦斯特先生已腐烂的尸体仰面躺在门口附近，没有强行闯入或犯罪的迹象。此后一切按常规程序进行：房屋被封闭，验尸官认定韦斯特先生死于心血管疾病。
After arriving at the house in that city north of Miami, the officers found Mr. West’s decomposed body lying face up near the door, with no signs of any forced entry or crime. Everything proceeded routinely from there: The house was boarded up and the medical examiner determined that Mr. West had died of cardiovascular disease.
但在随后的三年里，发生的一切绝非寻常。根据布劳沃德县治安官办公室的说法，劳德希尔市警察局成员斯古罗斯警官利用韦斯特先生的身份，实施了一项复杂的计划以控制该房产，尽管韦斯特先生有在世亲属本应继承该房产。
What happened over the next three years was anything but routine. According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, Officer Sguros, a member of the Lauderhill Police Department, proceeded to use Mr. West’s identity as part of a complex scheme to take control of the house, even though Mr. West had living relatives who should have inherited the property.
治安官办公室称，现年35岁的斯古罗斯警官于周二被捕，被指控犯有渎职罪、冒用死者身份证件罪、冒用个人身份信息罪、针对计算机用户的犯罪以及非法使用双向通讯设备罪。
Officer Sguros, 35, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with official misconduct, criminal use of a deceased person’s 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.
斯古罗斯警官周四未回复短信，目前不清楚他是否已聘请律师。劳德希尔市警察局表示，他已被安排带薪行政休假。
Officer Sguros did not respond to a text message on Thursday, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he had a lawyer. The Lauderhill Police Department said he had been placed on administrative leave without pay.
“本局每一名警官都宣誓保护劳德希尔市民，包括那些无法再为自己发声的人，”该市警察局长康斯坦斯·斯坦利在一份声明中说。
“Every officer in this department swears an oath to protect the people of Lauderhill, including those who can no longer speak for themselves,” the city’s police chief, Constance Stanley, said in a statement.
韦斯特先生的兄弟之一加里·韦斯特表示，他对这些指控感到震惊。
One of Mr. West’s brothers, Gary West, said he was appalled by the allegations.
“这是一件可怕的事，”他在周四接受采访时说。“如果你连警察都信不过，到底还能信谁？”根据治安官办公室的说法，斯古罗斯警官在发现韦斯特先生尸体后不久便介入了他的事务。
“It’s a terrible thing for someone to do,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “If you can’t trust a police officer, who the hell can you trust?”According to the sheriff’s office, Officer Sguros became involved in Mr. West’s affairs soon after discovering his body.
法庭记录显示，他告诉布劳沃德县验尸官他是韦斯特先生的朋友，尽管没有迹象表明他认识韦斯特先生。记录还显示，他还告诉验尸官，韦斯特先生没有在世亲属，并表示愿意处理葬礼事宜。
He told the medical examiner in Broward County that he was Mr. West’s friend, although there is no indication that he knew Mr. West, court records show. He also told the medical examiner that Mr. West had no living relatives and that he was willing to handle funeral arrangements, the records show.
2022年9月，斯古罗斯警官签署文件，授权验尸官释放韦斯特先生的遗体进行火化。
In September 2022, Officer Sguros signed paperwork authorizing the medical examiner to release Mr. West’s body for cremation.
布劳沃德县财产估价师马蒂·基亚尔表示，调查人员认为韦斯特先生已被火化，但他们仍在设法查明其骨灰的下落。
Marty Kiar, the Broward County property appraiser, said that investigators believed that Mr. West was cremated but they were still trying to find out what happened to his ashes.
根据法庭文件，随后斯古罗斯警官开始修缮韦斯特先生的房子，这是一栋建于1960年代、带附属车库、面积1900平方英尺（约176.5平方米）的房产。
According to court filings, Officer Sguros then began to repair Mr. West’s house, a 1,900-square-foot property with an attached garage that was built in the 1960s.
他支付水电费和房产税，并据自己所述在翻新上至少花费了21.4万美元以提升房产价值。布劳沃德县记录显示，该房屋目前价值403,590美元。
He paid the utility bills and property taxes and, by his own account, spent at least $214,000 on renovations to increase the property value. Broward County records indicate the house is now worth $403,590.
一名邻居在法庭文件中称，韦斯特先生去世后，她注意到房子的照明和空调系统进行了维修，游泳池也被盖上了。她还记得曾在屋外与一名身穿制服的警察聊天，并为一名警官要搬进社区而感到高兴。
A neighbor said in court filings that after Mr. West died, she noticed work had been done on the lighting and air conditioning at the home and that the swimming pool had been covered. She also remembered chatting with a uniformed police officer outside the house and being happy that an officer was moving into the neighborhood.
2025年2月，斯古罗斯警官提交正式法律通知，启动主张该房产所有权的程序。
In February 2025, Officer Sguros filed a formal legal notice to begin the process of claiming ownership of the property.
在该案件的一份宣誓书中，警官斯古罗斯承认他发现了韦斯特先生的遗体，并表示他在2022年8月“接管”了这栋房子。他说，当时这栋房子“不适合居住”，里面堆满了垃圾和废墟。屋顶部分坍塌，游泳池“成了一个敞开的深坑”。
In a sworn statement in that case, Officer Sguros acknowledged that he had found Mr. West’s body and said that he “took possession” of the house in August 2022. At the time, he said, it was “uninhabitable” and filled with trash and debris. Its roof had partially collapsed and the swimming pool had been “left as an open pit,” he said.
几个月后，一家房地产公司注意到了斯古罗斯警官提交的那份法律通知，并发现这栋房子与韦斯特先生有关联。该公司找到了韦斯特先生在世的亲属，其中包括他的两个兄弟，并向他们支付了房款。
A few months after Officer Sguros filed that legal notice, a realty company noticed it and discovered the house was associated with Mr. West. It located Mr. West’s living relatives, who include his two brothers, and paid them for the property.
基亚尔说，但该公司发现斯古罗斯警官占有着这栋房子，于是联系了劳德代尔堡警察局。法庭记录显示，随着该公司准备对这名警官采取法律行动，他交出了房子的钥匙。
But the company found that Officer Sguros was in possession of the house and contacted the Lauderhill Police Department, Mr. Kiar said. As the company prepared to take legal action against the officer, he surrendered the keys to the house, court records show.
随后，布劳沃德县调查人员深入调查此案。法庭记录显示，他们发现，2024年有人以韦斯特先生的名义申请了修缮该住宅外部门窗的许可，尽管韦斯特先生已于两年前去世。
Broward County investigators then dug into the case. They discovered that, in 2024, an application for a permit to repair the exterior doors and windows of Mr. West’s home appeared to have been filed by Mr. West, even though he had died two years earlier, court records show.
文书上列出的联系电话是斯古罗斯警官的，但房产所有人一栏写的是韦斯特先生，法庭记录显示。文书中还包含韦斯特先生佛罗里达州驾照的信息，以及一份据称是韦斯特先生的签名，治安官办公室表示。该办公室称，负责监督调查的侦探认为，斯古罗斯警官“在许可证上伪造了韦斯特的签名。”
The paperwork listed Officer Sguros’s phone number as the contact, but it had Mr. West listed as the property owner, court records show. It also contained information from Mr. West’s Florida driver’s license and a signature that purported to be Mr. West’s, the sheriff’s office said. It said the detective overseeing the investigation believed Officer Sguros “forged West’s signature on the permit.”
基亚尔表示，在他办公室在南佛罗里达调查的数百起财产犯罪案件中，此案独一无二，他称南佛罗里达是“全球房产权证欺诈之都”。
Mr. Kiar said the case was unique among the hundreds of property crimes his office has investigated in South Florida, which he called “the title fraud capital of the world.”
基亚尔说：“据我所知，这是执法人员首次被指控实施此类行为，这正是此案令人如此担忧的原因。”他补充说，这些指控代表了“真正的背叛公众信任的行为”。迈克尔·莱文森在纽约为《时报》报道突发新闻。
“This is the first time that I can think of that someone in law enforcement is alleged to have done this, and that’s what makes this so concerning,” Mr. Kiar said, adding that the allegations represented “a true breach of the public trust.”Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.