A Florida resident was taken into custody last week after allegedly posing as an undercover law enforcement officer to evade a background check.
William Dennis Milstead, aged 64, faces multiple charges including impersonating a police officer, providing false information to acquire property, and utilizing a two-way communication device for criminal activities, as reported by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).
The arrest followed a report from a real estate agency that Milstead was attempting to lease a residential unit without undergoing the necessary background verification.
Milstead submitted a forged letter to the agency asserting that he was an undercover agent with the FDLE operating “off-grid,” which he claimed justified his exemption from the standard background check process. The letter contained numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes and purportedly came from an assistant captain of an imaginary “Off Grid Command Unit” within the FDLE.
In part, the fraudulent document requested that exceptions be made regarding Milstead’s background check due to security concerns for their agents. It falsely stated that Milstead had been employed by FDLE since October 2006 and was nearing his 20-year retirement milestone.
The FDLE revealed that this is not Milstead’s first encounter with law enforcement; he has been arrested on 13 previous felony charges and faced similar impersonation allegations in both 2002 and 2016.
Milstead was processed at St. Lucie County Jail on November 13 but secured his release two days later after posting bail set at $11,000. The investigation into this incident is currently being handled by FDLE’s Orlando division.
