KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The attorney for an ex-cop-turned felon accused of impersonating a security guard inside a Kissimmee community has filed a motion to have charges in his case dismissed.
Joseph Conover and his employer girlfriend, Sherry Raposo, were arrested after concerned residents inside Turnberry Reserve reached out to 9 Investigates two years ago, saying the couple was abusing their power and terrorizing the community. Raposo owns Management 35 Firm, the company that managed the property on behalf of the Turnberry Reserve HOA at the time.
The Motion To Dismiss, which was scheduled for a hearing in early September, states that as of January 1, 2019, the Turnberry Reserve HOA had started its own in-house security department and no longer contracted with another business run by Conover and Raposo. However, for the entire time period in which Conover is accused of impersonating an officer, he told state probation officials that he was the ‘security director.’ Documents show he even claimed to help hire and train the HOA in-house security.
Conover, who was once a company police officer in North Carolina with arresting powers, became a felon and lost the right to wear a badge because of bad arrests and abuse of power there.
Read: Former Turnberry Reserve property manager arrested on fraud-related charges
In the Motion To Dismiss charges he impersonated a security officer, Conover’s attorney points out that he was employed and paid by Management 35 Firm, not the Turnberry Reserve HOA. It implies he could not have impersonated security because the ‘Turnberry Reserve HOA provided uniforms, post orders, points of contact, patrol vehicles, and ID cards to their in-house security officers.’
The court filing goes on to state that Management 35 Firm ‘neither had nor offered security personnel to Turnberry Reserve’ or otherwise engaged in security services for compensation.
However, in other records previously reported on by 9 Investigates, Conover himself says otherwise. Because of his prior felonies, Conover was required to meet with a probation officer every month for the time period he’s accused of the crime in question; and each month, from January to June of 2019, he repeatedly referred to himself as a ‘security director’ in Department of Corrections Records. He also told the DOC he worked to ‘update security uniforms’ and ‘patrol units.’ In May and June of that year, he even claimed to have ‘hired and trained a new public safety officer at the Turnberry Reserve HOA.’
Raposo, who is also facing charges as the owner of Management 35 Firm, also wrote a letter in March of 2019 to the National Crime Prevention Association, stating that ‘Chief Conover’ was instrumental in setting up the in-house security for the community.
Depending on what happens during the September motion to dismiss hearing, Conover could go to trial in October.
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