Lighthouse Point, Florida Police Officer, Ex-Wife Charged With Fraud, Arson For Burning Car

A Lighthouse Point police officer was arrested Wednesday morning by the Broward Sheriff's Office and charged with nine criminal counts including arson, fraud, witness tampering and falsifying records.

Officer Sean Thompson was released four hours later after posting a $10,200 bond.

The complaint affidavit says a 1997 Pontiac registered to Thompson and his ex-wife, Cynthia Thompson, was found torched in Weston on Sept. 14, the same day Sean Thompson filed a claim with his insurance company and reported the car stolen to the Sheriff's office. The couple owed $5,752 on the car.

On Sept. 19, fire investigators determined the fire was arson and started with gasoline.

On Oct. 14, Cynthia Thompson was questioned by investigators and she implicated her ex-husband, telling them she let him know on Sept. 13 that she planned to "torch" the car because she was "distraught over the fact that the Pontiac was going to be repossessed and this would destroy her credit rating." She asked her ex-husband to leave the car unlocked for her and he told her he would, according to the affidavit.

Cynthia Thompson told investigators her ex-husband instructed her to tell investigators she didn't know anything and that she had been home that night.

Sean Thompson, 31, told an investigator at one point his ex-wife did tell him she was going to burn the car, but he thought she was joking. During a later interview he told an investigator he knew nothing about the incident. Because of the conflicting statements, he is also being charged with perjury.

According to the State Attorney's Office charging document, Sean Thompson filed false information to the insurance company "with the intent to injure, defraud or deceive an insurer" and then instructed his ex-wife to "withhold information and/or lie as to her whereabouts during a critical period in the investigation."

He is charged "with a corrupt intent to obtain a benefit for himself or another."

Court records show Cynthia Thompson, 32, is also charged with second-degree arson.

Lighthouse Point police spokesman Mike Oh said Wednesday that Thompson started with the department in 1996 as a dispatcher. He became a road patrol officer in 1998 and has several letters of reprimand in his file for unsatisfactory performance and a one-day suspension for leaving his post without permission in 2002.

Thompson, who earns $50,655 a year, was suspended with pay on Oct. 16 when his involvement in the arson investigation started. He was suspended without pay on Nov. 21 when the department learned the State Attorney's Office would file charges.

"We're going to be initiating an Internal Affairs investigation and we have no further comment," Oh said.

A secretary for Tony Alfero, Thompson's attorney, said Alfero would not be commenting on the case.