Corrupt Cop Arrested for Staging Fake Accidents

An officer is jailed after granting a friend a favor

Sometimes it doesn't pay to do a favor for a friend, especially when you are a cop.

A Surfside Police Officer Woodrow Brooks was arrested recently on charges of corruption after he decided to take part in an insurance fraud scheme last year.

Brooks knowingly filed two police reports for staged accidents after a friend asked the officer to do a favor for one of his friends, according to Hialeah Police investigators.

Brooks was recruited by his friend Federico Elias, who was asking as a favor for Alex Rosso. Brooks agreed, but when Elias spilled the beans to Hialeah Police Detective Alvarez, Brooks was taken in for questioning and confessed. Some kind of friend Elias was.

Brooks, a three-year veteran, even admitted that in one of the accidents, only one vehicle of the alleged three vehicles involved in a crash was present.

Because of Brooks fake accident report, an insurance claim was filed with Esurance for the repair of a 2008 Land Rover for $28,000. It is unknown if Brooks received any compensation for his illegal favor.
 
Last week, Brooks was charged with insurance fraud, official misconduct and grand theft. He was booked into jail, and later bonded out. 
 
Brooks had been suspended from the department since October due to the investigation performed by the State of Florida Division of Insurance Fraud and the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
  
Brooks is scheduled to be arraigned on February 24.
 
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