KEY WEST, Fla. – A 40-year-old South Florida cop illegally accessed law enforcement databases and sent her teenage “drug dealer” boyfriend information on impending drug raids and confidential informants in the Florida Keys, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Local 10 News on Thursday.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested fellow Deputy Jennifer Ketcham on 19 felony computer crimes charges Wednesday.
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According to the warrant, MCSO investigators found that Ketcham, employed since 2021, illegally accessed the Florida Criminal Information Center and National Criminal Information Center — known as F/NCIC — and Drivers and Vehicle Information Databases — known as DAVID — at least 19 times from February 2023 up until this June.
The report states that the illegal access stemmed from an “intimate relationship” Ketcham had with a 19-year-old man; Local 10 News is not identifying him because it’s not clear whether he is facing any charges.
The investigation into Ketcham, authorities said, began in June.
An ‘intimate relationship’ with a ‘drug dealer’
Investigators interviewed an MCSO detective who was friends with Ketcham, the warrant states. She described the man as a “drug dealer” who at one point lived with Ketcham.
The detective said she believed Ketcham, of Cudjoe Key, had been living with him until at least August 2023 and told an MCSO investigator that Ketcham said that he “was only 17 when they began dating.”
That detective had a photo of the man in Ketcham’s bed, the warrant states.
The detective told investigators that “Deputy Ketcham told her that (her boyfriend) was a drug dealer and he was ‘making a run’ to the Redlands” in Miami-Dade County and said she believed he “was transporting drugs to or from the Redlands.”
The detective also said that “the squad Deputy Ketcham was working on knew to stay away from certain avenues on Stock Island due to their relationship.”
That detective showed MCSO investigators a series of WhatsApp messages between her and Ketcham, including one where Ketcham texted, “he’s dealing dope and I can’t be tied into that,” according to the warrant.
Ketcham also texted the detective about sex she had with her boyfriend and a shirtless photograph of him in her kitchen, deputies said.
Illegal access allegations
Authorities said they would find 19 instances where Ketcham misused databases to look up information on her boyfriend and others, including sending him information about a man he knew and the F/NCIC information about a man she arrested in a drug case.
In one instance, after Ketcham accessed a database, the two discussed “that MCSO is going to pull him over and make sure his license is valid,” authorities allege.
They said Ketcham knew that the databases were to be “utilized for law enforcement purposes only” and said she had no legitimate reason to access the information.
Detectives interview deputy
MCSO investigators wrote that they interviewed Ketcham on June 20, informing her that it was part of a “criminal investigation and was not an internal affairs investigation.”
The warrant states that she told them that she sometimes looked her boyfriend up in databases because “he thought he may have had a suspended license” and said she never did so to be “malicious or devious.”
She also spoke of an instance where she arrested his mother, authorities said; Ketcham had done so after her boyfriend “provided her with the location and vehicle that (his mother) was operating.”
“Deputy Ketcham stated that she has no ‘concrete’ evidence that (her boyfriend) is involved in any criminal activity but that it was brought to her attention during a previous investigation,” the warrant states. “She also stated that she has had conversations about (his involvement) in criminal activity with other people and advised that she had ‘a gut feeling’ he was involved in criminal activities but did not have any evidence to support this.”
The MCSO investigator wrote that he asked Ketcham whether she “had ever told any other deputies to stay away from certain avenues of Stock Island” because of her boyfriend’s “criminal activity.”
“Deputy Ketcham stated that she has but only in a joking manner,” the investigator wrote. “Deputy Ketcham noted that she has no authority to stop anyone from patrolling a particular area and only joked about it.”
However, the investigator noted that Ketcham has been the “acting supervisor” for her shift since Feb. 7, 2023.
“As an acting supervisor, she dictates which zone deputies are assigned and any specific tasks or assignments that may need to be completed and provides guidance during calls for service,” he wrote.
’11,845 pages of text messages’
On July 24, authorities said they obtained “11,845 pages of text messages” between Ketcham and her boyfriend from his device.
Messages included Ketcham sending her boyfriend a picture of his driver’s license photo and an F/NCIC return about a man, asking if her boyfriend had “seen (him) in the last couple of weeks.”
According to the warrant, on June 9, 2023, Ketcham texted her boyfriend “our Narc unit is out on Stock Island right now” and “they are looking for Albert Cook,” a man who MCSO jail records show has a history of drug arrests in the Keys.
Ketcham also sent her boyfriend driver’s license information from traffic stops and F/NCIC information on a man she was trying to serve a warrant on, deputies said.
On Sept. 6, 2023, the warrant states that Ketcham texted her boyfriend and said “that she was told to stay out of Big Coppitt Key, letting him know that ‘Narcs’ are getting ready for a raid.”
Two days later, deputies said she texted her boyfriend “narc is on Stock Island for a couple of hours” and said that “(name redacted) was stopped and he is going to be a confidential informant,” according to the warrant.
On Nov. 11, 2023, Ketcham texted her boyfriend that an MCSO sergeant was “watching Roberta Street,” on Stock Island, and, five days later, sent him a Facebook photo of her colleague after he requested one, authorities allege.
On Nov. 24, 2023, the warrant states that Ketcham told her boyfriend the name of another confidential informant.
According to the warrant, Ketcham didn’t just pass along information about happenings within her own agency.
She allegedly told her boyfriend about an impending Key West Police Department search warrant execution in December and said she’d ask a KWPD officer about it and, in May, sent her boyfriend scene photographs soon after a KWPD officer shot and wounded a man who police said used a tractor to commit attempted murder.
The warrant states that Ketcham asked her boyfriend to “not disclose them to anyone else.”
Deputy jailed, placed on leave
Deputies took Ketcham into custody at MCSO’s Marathon substation Wednesday and she was later booked into MCSO’s Key West jail facility.
Facing 19 counts of accessing a computer without authority, she was being held on a $1.9 million bond.
An arraignment date wasn’t listed in MCSO jail records as of Thursday; a “confidential” court case is listed under Ketcham’s name on the Monroe County Clerk of Courts’ website.
Following her arrest, officials said Ketcham was placed on administrative leave without pay pending an internal investigation.
“I am committed to keeping this community informed of significant events that occur in this agency — good and bad,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said in a news release Wednesday.