A Florida man was taken into custody last week by state authorities for allegedly impersonating an undercover officer to evade a background check.
William Dennis Milstead, aged 64, faces charges of falsely portraying a police officer, providing false information to acquire property, and using a two-way communication device for criminal activities, as per the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Milstead was apprehended after a real estate agency reported to the FDLE that he was trying to lease a residential property without undergoing a background check.
He presented a fabricated letter to the agency asserting that he was a covert FDLE agent operating “off-grid,” justifying his inability to undergo a background check.
The forged letter, riddled with grammatical and punctuation errors, purportedly originated from an assistant captain of the FDLE’s “Off Grid Command Unit,” advocating for Milstead’s exemption from the real estate agency’s background check protocol.
“We ask that you make an exception to limit the background/credit check on William Dennis Milstead due to the security needed to protect our agent safety and rely solely on this letter of recommendation from the FDLE and State of Florida,” the letter reads in part.
The document claimed that Milstead’s tenure with the FDLE commenced in October 2006 and highlighted that he is “three years shy of reaching his 20th year retirement.”
According to the FDLE, Milstead has a history of 13 prior felony arrests and has previously faced charges for impersonating an officer in 2002 and 2016.
Milstead was taken into custody at the St. Lucie County Jail on November 13 and was released on November 15 after posting an $11,000 bond, as per jail records.
The FDLE’s Orlando office is currently handling the investigation of this case.
