> Sguros filed a complaint against the real estate company in February, saying in filings that he discovered West in the home while he was on duty and detailing how he subsequently began to clean, secure and invest in the property. However, he never established in his records that he came to be involved in the home through a purchase, lease, probate appointment, deed or relationship with West’s heirs, the arrest affidavit said.<p>Wow, cops certainly know how to produce a confession.
Cop stole house from dead man. Then cop sued company that rightfully bought house from dead man's heirs?
That's one way to get a home.<p>This sounds bonkers, but there was a kernel of legal strategy here - adverse possession, basically a statute of limitations on getting your land back.
> Sguros [the cop] claimed he spent at least $214,000 of his own money on the home.<p>If he spent so much, why not just buy his own house? The house in the article is nothing special to look at.
A real estate website tells me the average in that city is $400K. But it does seem pretty dumb to spend that amount of money on improvements when you know damn well your ownership is fraudulent and may come back to bite you.
does a house cost below $214,000 now? I haven't heard the news that the market crashed.
$214k is more than I have spent on the home I "own" (have a mortgage on) even adding in my downpayment over the last 7 years. He could have bought a home for what he claims to have spent.
When a fraudulently obtained house costs $214k you may as well spend the $400k average house price in that city and avoid jail forever. Staying out of jail and continuing to work as a cop is easily worth more than $200k.
Assuming the identity of a dead person was (is still?) a common form of fraud. People (usually relatives) could collect pension and social security payments sometimes for years before being discovered (if they ever were).
That he is being prosecuted for this is a sad example of why officers need stronger qualified immunity for snap decisions made in the line of duty
To be fair, he likely wasn't trained not to impersonate a dead man and steal his house
I can't tell if this is satire or not, but I'm suspecting that it is
You forgot the /s
The most surprising part of this story is that a police officer got arrested and charged with a felony.