ISLAMORADA, Fla. — A former South Florida law enforcement officer is headed to state prison, prosecutors announced on Monday.
Jennifer Ann Ketcham, a former deputy with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, was sentenced to spend more than three years behind bars after appearing in an Islamorada courtroom on Monday.
Ketcham, 41, of Cudjoe Key, pleaded no contest to 40 felony charges after authorities said she illegally accessed law enforcement systems and databases to pass along sensitive information to her “drug dealer” boyfriend, who was 19 years old at the time of her 2024 arrest.
MCSO investigators said she sent him information about impending drug raids and patrol locations and passed along details about confidential informants.
“This wasn’t just a betrayal of public trust — these actions put officers’ lives in danger," Monroe County Chief Assistant State Attorney Joseph Mansfield said in part in a statement Monday. "When someone uses their badge to weaponize access to restricted systems for personal interests, we will hold them fully accountable.”
During Monday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay and Key West Police Department Chief Sean Brandenburg detailed how Ketcham “compromised officer safety, jeopardized numerous ongoing cases and directly contributed to a confidential informant being beaten so severely” that the person had to be airlifted out of the Florida Keys.
Ramsay fired Ketcham soon after her arrest.
Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne, in a statement, called it “one of the most serious breaches of trust we have seen from a sworn deputy in this county.”
Ketcham pleaded no contest to 20 counts of unlawful use of a computer, 15 counts of unlawful use of a communications device and five counts of misuse of public office.
After serving her 37-month sentence, she’ll be on probation for five years and was ordered to pay $11,000 in fines and court costs.
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