Florida police officer arrested for interfering with investigation on drug-dealer boyfriend

SEATTLE - A Florida cop was arrested and is facing 19 felony charges as she stands accused of feeding information about the whereabouts of police officers and impending drug raids to her drug dealer boyfriend.

Deputy Jennifer Ketcham, 40, was arrested on July 31 after an investigation led Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies found that she used the Florida Criminal Information Center (F/NCIC) and the Drivers and Vehicle Information Databases (DAVID) to find information on her boyfriend, 19, and others suspected of being involved with drug dealing.

In a news release following Ketcham's arrest, MSCO spokesperson Adam Lindhart said: "Ketcham used law enforcement databases to look up information for personal reasons beyond the legal scope of her employment as a Deputy," Local 10 News reported.

Ketcham remains in county jail on a bond of $610,000. She has been charged with 19 felony counts of misuse of law enforcement computers, computer networks and electronic devices. She was placed on administrative leave without pay pending an internal affairs investigation.

Investigators reviewing more than 11,000 text messages between the couple also discovered that, back in November of 2023, he asked Ketcham to send a photograph of a detective who was surveilling a house on Roberta Street in Key West. Ketcham found a picture of the detective on Facebook and sent it to him, the warrant shows.

Ketcham was hired on June 2, 2021 and, according to the warrant, she began an "intimate relationship" with her boyfriend in October 2022 when he was 17 years old. The couple lived together until August 2023, police said.

She was an acting supervisor while dating the man. One of her colleagues told investigators that her squad "knew to stay away from certain avenues on stock Island due to their relationship."

Ketcham even arrested her boyfriend's mother at his request on June 11, 2023, according to the report. She detailed the arrest in a text message to her colleague the next day. "He called me and told me where she would be and what car she would be driving. I served a warrant and she got a false name charge," Ketcham texted, according to the warrant. "That's literally between he and I."

As of now, it remains unclear whether the 19-year-old boyfriend, who remains anonymous, will face any charges as Ketcham reportedly had "a gut feeling" that he was involved in criminal activities. Investigation into her alleged misuse of law enforcement databases began in June after a fellow deputy who was her close friend reported her to internal affairs.