A Florida man was arrested last week after state police said he posed as an undercover officer to avoid a background check.
William Dennis Milstead, 64, was charged with impersonating a police officer, making a false statement to obtain property and using a two-way communication device to commit a felony, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Milstead was arrested after a real estate agency reported to the FDLE that he was trying to rent a residential property without submitting to a background check.
Milstead submitted a forged letter to the agency claiming to be an undercover FDLE agent working “off the grid,” which is why he could not participate in a background check.
The fake letter, which contained numerous grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors, was supposedly written by an assistant commander of FDLE's “Off Grid Command Unit” explaining why Milstead should be an exception to the real estate agency's background check requirements.
“We are requesting an exception to limit the background/credit check for William Dennis Milstead due to the security necessary to protect the safety of our agent and to rely solely on this letter of recommendation from the FDLE and the State of Florida,” the letter read. part.
It claimed Milstead's employment with FDLE began in October 2006, and he said he was “three years away from his 20th year of retirement.”
Milstead has 13 prior felony arrests and was charged with impersonating an officer in 2002 and 2016, FDLE said.
Jail records show Milstead was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on Nov. 13 and was released on Nov. 15 after posting $11,000 bail.
The case is being investigated by the FDLE office in Orlando.
