ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced May 17 that a suspended detective in the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office was indicted that same day for installing a GPS tracking device on a civilian’s vehicle without obtaining the required warrant from a judge or departmental authorization.
Timothy Kealy, 27, of Bloomfield, was indicted by a state grand jury on a charge of second-degree official misconduct. The indictment was obtained by the Attorney General’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability as the result of an investigation by the Professional Standards Bureau of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.
The ECPO Professional Standards Bureau began investigating Kealy in January 2020 after learning that Kealy, who was assigned to the Essex County Narcotics Task Force, had allegedly purchased and installed a GPS tracking device on a civilian’s car without formal or legal authority. The ECPO has a process by which detectives must obtain permission from supervisors to apply to a judge for a warrant, and only ECPO-issued GPS devices may be used. 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.
The charge of second-degree official misconduct carries a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison, including a mandatory minimum term of five years of parole ineligibility, and a fine of up to $150,000.
The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proved guilty in a court of law.
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