A former Smyrna Police Department detective has pleaded guilty in federal court to coercion and enticement of a minor, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Michael Kealty, who was charged a year ago with distributing child sexual abuse images and was fired from the Smyrna Police Department shortly afterward, will be sentenced Feb. 12.
He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Once he is released, he will be required to register as a sex offender, according to the plea agreement.
Which is what the court records show
The federal investigation into Kealty began with a CyberTip from Snapchat to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to court documents obtained by Delaware Online/The News Journal. The tip, which was subsequently forwarded to the FBI, stated that a user later identified as Kealty was possessing child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, on his account.
A search warrant executed by the FBI revealed that Kealty had access to the Snapchat account on both his personal and work iPhones. He sent multiple images from the account, court documents say, and messaged others about his sexual interest in girls between the ages of 14 and 16.
He also told another user in November 2022 that he was working overtime at a high school football game “if you want me to try and take some pictures for you, lol.”
“It won’t be anything crazy, but maybe some cute butts,” Kealty wrote.
Conversations with minors
Kealty directly solicited child sexual abuse material from a minor in 2021 after grooming her for six months, court records show.
The FBI said it found sexual conversations Kealty had with a 16-year-old girl from April 2021 to October 2021, during which he asked for explicit photos of her. When she said she didn’t feel comfortable sending him photos, court records show Kealty asked for photos of her friends or sister because she didn’t want him to masturbate to photos of her “the way I want to.”
A search of Kealty’s Snapchat account also found disturbing language that the FBI said indicated he “enjoyed” rape and used racist and vulgar language when referring to Black and Latina women and girls.
“I would rape that slut [racial slur] like my ancestors did in NC when America was great,” Kealty wrote in a post.
Previous research on Kealty
Court documents also revealed a previous CyberTip involving “jasonkyle221,” Kealty’s Snapchat username. According to the submitter of the tip, the user asked him to send photos of 15-year-old girls in bikinis via the messaging app Kik. He told the complainant that sending these photos was not illegal and that he was a police officer.
The complainant blocked and reported “jasonkyle221”, and the FBI launched an investigation into the user in September 2020.
According to court records, the Kik account was linked to multiple login IP addresses, including the Smyrna Police Department, Kealty’s home and his parents’ home. While detectives said they “believed” Kealty was “jasonkyle221” on Kik, a lack of confirmed child sexual abuse material and no follow-up information from the complainant meant the investigation “did not move forward.”
Facing consequences
U.S. Attorney David Weiss said Kealty, a Smyrna Police Department detective corporal and Air Force Reserves sergeant at the time of the crimes he committed, “took an oath to protect and serve.
“Rather than honor that oath, he chose to prey on the most vulnerable members of our community,” Weiss said.
PREVIOUS REPORTING: Rape footage, racist chats: Evidence against ex-Smyrna detective accused of child pornography
Kealty acknowledged as part of his plea deal that the minors depicted in the child sexual abuse materials he possessed had suffered harm and that if any of them sought restitution, he would pay it.
Report child sexual abuse material to the Cyber Tip Line online at report.cybertip.org or by calling 800-843-5678.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more coverage, follow them on X at @h_edelman.
This article originally appeared in Delaware News Journal: Ex-Smyrna Police Department detective pleads guilty to coercing teenage girl
