By Mandy Miles & Alex Rickert
Last updated: Aug. 8, 8:30 a.m.
A Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputy will face 19 felony charges after allegedly using police computer systems to help her boyfriend’s drug-dealing activities, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Keys Weekly on July 31.
Jennifer Ketcham, 40, allegedly used law enforcement computers, networks, databases and her position as an acting supervisor to warn her boyfriend, Ryan Hernandez, about impending drug raids and of narcotics officers patrolling certain areas of the Lower Keys, including Stock Island and Big Coppitt Key.
An incident report obtained by the Keys Weekly details the investigation of Ketcham and more than a dozen instances of her using her law enforcement credentials to access the Florida Criminal Information Center and National Criminal Information Center (F/NCIC) and Drivers and Vehicle Information Databases (DAVID) to look up information about Hernandez and send database search results to Hernandez regarding other vehicle plates and individuals.
In text messages between Ketcham and another sheriff’s office employee, Ketcham reportedly stated that “(Hernandez) is dealing dope, and I can’t be tied into that.”
The employee alleged that Hernandez was only 17 years old when the pair began their relationship, eventually living together as a couple. However, the arrest report references a Ryan Hernandez with a birth date of 1990, matching the only individual of the same name with seven arrests in the Keys for drug-related offenses over the past 14 years.
In an interview with sheriff’s office investigators, Ketcham reportedly stated that she did not have any “concrete” evidence that Ryan Hernandez is involved in any criminal activity, but that it had been brought to her attention during a previous investigation. She stated that she searched the databases for Hernandez’s name because he believed his license had been suspended.
The report goes on to allege that in addition to conducting numerous database searches to obtain information about drivers’ licenses and license plates, Ketcham advised Hernandez of areas to avoid on Stock Island in 2023 while she was an acting supervisor, who dictated the zones to which to which patrol deputies are assigned.
More than 11,000 pages of text messages allegedly sent between Ketcham and Hernandez, obtained via a search warrant for Hernandez’s phone, show that a contact named “J” warned Hernandez to “stay out of Big Coppitt Key, letting him know that ‘narcs’ are getting ready for a raid” on Sept. 6, 2023. Two days later, text messages from the same contact allegedly warned that a “narc is on Stock Island for a couple of hours.”
In her interview with investigators, Ketcham reportedly stated she had warned deputies to stay away from areas of Stock Island, but “only in a joking manner.”
In another instance, Ketcham reportedly sent Hernandez a Facebook photo of a narcotics officer who was patrolling in a specific area so Hernandez would recognize her.
Numerous other text messages allegedly show Ketcham revealing confidential informants and activities of narcotics officers throughout 2023 and 2024.
Ketcham was hired on June 2, 2021 after graduating from the police academy that is held at the College of the Florida Keys. Ketcham was placed on administrative leave without pay pending an internal affairs investigation. Her bond was set at $1.9 million — $100,000 per felony charge – but was later reduced to $610,000 in an Aug. 5 order from Judge Albert Kelley.
“I am committed to keeping this community informed of significant events that occur in this agency — good and bad,” said Sheriff Rick Ramsay.
At press time, Ketcham remained in custody on a $610,000 bond. Her arraignment is currently set for Thursday, Aug. 22. She is represented by attorney Dustin Hunter of Key West-based law firm Robertson & Hunter.
