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Timothy Kealy, 27, of Bloomfield was working with the Essex County Prosecutor’s Narcotics Task Force when he bought and installed the tracking device without getting a supervisor’s permission to apply to a judge for a warrant, state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced.
A court-issued warrant is required by law for law enforcement to install a GPS device on a vehicle.
Kealy was suspended as a result of the investigation and ordered by the prosecutor’s Professional Standards Bureau to surrender his weapon and various other items, including his county-issued phone, Grewal said.
Kealy “lied about the whereabouts of the county-issued phone, saying it was at a repair shop, in order to prevent PSB detectives from obtaining access to the phone,” the attorney general said. “The phone was not at the repair shop and has not been recovered.”
Grewal’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability brought Kealy’s case to the grand jury following an investigation by the Professional Standards Bureau of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office (“ECPO”).
The grand jurors returned an indictment charging Kealy with official misconduct charges, the attorney general said.
He has remained free pending trial.
Deputy Attorney General Eric C. Cohen presented the case to the state grand jury for the OPIA Corruption Bureau, Grewal said.
The attorney general thanked the Professional Standards Bureau of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office for its investigation and referral.
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OPIA has a toll-free Tipline for the public to report corruption: 1-844-OPIA-TIPS.
The AG’s Office has an Anti-Corruption Reward Program that offers rewards of up to $25,000 for tips leading to a conviction for a crime involving public corruption.
MORE INFO: NJ Office of Attorney Corruption Reward
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