Once, Twice, Three-Times a Dullard

After pleading guilty to making false statements to the Federal Aviation Administration, Cole Allan Peacock, 30, of Islamorada, Florida, has been found guilty by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida and subsequently sentenced to 37-months of incarceration plus three-years of supervised release.

Court documents indicate that Peacock, in July 2022, failed to disclose convictions for multiple felony offenses when applying for his Student Pilot Certificate. Approximately one month later, Peacock embellished his flight logbook with the forged endorsement and signature of an FAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI)—thereby fraudulently authorizing himself to act as Pilot In Command (PIC) of certain aircraft.

Operating under the false pretense of being so authorized, Peacock—using the alias Cole Watson—unlawfully carried a passenger from Miami Homestead General Aviation Airport (X51) to Orlando International Airport (MCO) while holding only a Student Pilot Certificate.

In addition to impersonating a licensed pilot, Peacock was found to have submitted fraudulent records to the FAA for purpose of attempting to register a stolen Bombardier Lear-55 under his Cole Watson sobriquet.

In February 2021, Fort Lauderdale Police responded to reports of the theft of a Venezuelan Lear-55, tail number YV4443, from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE). Investigators located the missing aircraft at a nearby FBO and were vexed to discover it displaying tail number N895RS and registered to Cole Watson and Watson Aircraft Salvage Corp.

The FAA received paperwork from Peacock, posing as Watson, submitted in support of the contrived registration transfer. In addition to conferring with the stolen Learjet’s lawful owner and ascertaining the purported bill of sale had been forged, agents determined the Florida Notary stamp imprinted on the document was itself counterfeit.

An examination of the pilfered Lear-55 revealed the fraudulent U.S. registration number had been painted over the aircraft’s valid, Venezuelan markings.

The attempted subterfuge led to Peacock’s June 2021 indictment by a grand jury in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Cole Allan Peacock’s thirty years have been industriously misspent. Between 2013 and 2019, the young man was convicted of a string of crimes including: credit card fraud, grand theft, resisting arrest with violence, threatening police deputies with a syringe, emailing bomb threats to a sheriff’s office substation, passing fake checks, felony impersonation of a public official, and misdemeanor reckless driving. In 2016, Peacock was charged with stealing $120,000 worth of computer equipment following a joint investigation by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Regrettably—but unsurprisingly—the 2021 grand jury indictment failed to dissuade Peacock from pursuing further schemes to defraud. In March 2022, the incorrigible Peacock was accused of endeavoring to drum up business for his then employer by intentionally closing a sewer valve and causing $3,338 of damage to the lift station of an Islamorada resort.

While resort personnel worked to mitigate the damage, the property’s manager received a phone call from Peacock, who inquired after the resort’s need for a sewage backup system. Peacock, at the time, was an employee of a company that services sewage lift stations.

Security camera footage revealed Peacock skulking about the resort property in the hours preceding the vandalism. Questioned by investigators, Peacock—after the reflexive fashion of inveterate felons—denied any wrongdoing. In time, however, he admitted to closing the valve and was charged with damaging a sewer system and criminal mischief.

FMI: www.justice.gov