Article Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel

By Rene Stutzman

Published September 8, 2015

  
The former head of the Seminole County Sheriff's Office SWAT team on Tuesday put an end to his criminal fraud case by entering a pretrial diversion program..

Former Lt. Mike Weippert resigned last year after he was accused of taking money for off-duty work as a security guard for a pair of homeowners associations but then not showing up.

   

He was charged with fraud, a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, but he and prosecutors agreed to a deal: He will serve 12 months in a pre-trial diversion program and if he completes it successfully, the case against him will be dropped. He also agreed to never work as a law enforcement officer again, according to court paperwork. Weippert, 49, of Apopka, was scheduled to appear in court in Sanford on Tuesday, but attorneys finalized the deal beforehand. He was, however, instructed to report to a probation officer specializing in pre-trial diversion and not to leave Seminole County without first getting permission. Weippert resigned Aug. 19, 2014, as the investigation into his off-duty jobs got underway. He was under contract to work in uniform for the Sweetwater Oaks and Wekiva homeowners associations, but co-workers began to complain that they wound up answering more than two dozen calls that Weippert should have handled as a private contractor.

Former Seminole County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Weippert in 2006.

 
The Sheriff's Office then determined that on three days when he was supposed to be on the job for the HOAs, he was in another county. Weippert is the SWAT sharpshooter who killed Chris Penely, 15, at Milwee Middle School in 2006. The boy had brought a toy gun to school and brandished it as if it were real, prompting a lockdown that Weippert ended when he shot the boy without consulting Sheriff's Office managers at the scene.

He told investigators that the boy had pointed the toy gun at him and that he thought it was real.