Newport News police officer arrested for sexual exploitation of children after photos of 10-year-old daughter recovered, feds say

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WRIC) — The FBI has opened a federal investigation into a Newport News police officer, Sargent Michael Covey, who has been arrested for the sexual exploitation of children.

A federal affidavit says the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) on February 22, 2022. The social media platform, Kik, had filed a complaint with the NCMEC that seven pictures of pubescent girls “depicting child pornography were disseminated” by a man — later identified as a convicted sex offender — known only as R.G. in court documents.

The document states R.G. “made a couple of admissions” to the sheriff’s office after it requested a meeting with him the next day, and was arrested on February 23.

An investigation by the FBI Cincinnati found several photos and video files on R.G.’s electronic devices and — based on the media’s metadata — concluded the photos originated from an address in Newport News, Virginia, at 121 Edmund Drive, according to the report.

The FBI Norfolk was contacted to help in identifying the child depicted in the images and videos. The affidavit said that according to the data on the media files, the videos were produced from an Apple iPhone between December 2021 and January 2022.

On June 7, 2022, the FBI emailed the Newport News Police Department School Resource Officer to ask if any school-aged children lived at the 121 Edmund Drive address, where the photos were ascertained to have originated.

The school resource officer sent over the school paperwork revealing that two 10-year-old children, a boy and a girl, lived at the address. The children had the same birthday, December 30, 2011. A review was done of the girl’s school photos, and it was concluded she appeared to be the same girl in the pornographic photos and videos, according to the report.

According to court documents, the photos show a pre-pubescent girl in bed asleep, in one of the photos, covers are pulled down, exposing her thighs. The documents continued, setting the scene of the video files as the same girl in bed asleep, while a male masturbates close to her.

The court documents state that Renee and Michael Covey were listed as the student’s parents.

On June 8, a member of the FBI found Michael Covey’s phone number to be associated with Telegram account user @Kglora — full name, K9 Zora — and Snapchat account user anobodyfZl — display name, A_Nobody_From_Nowhere, according to the report. After a review of R.G.’s devices, officials found a Wickr contact on R.G.’s phone: anybodyfnowhere. The court documents state there were no chats located on R.G’s device between the two.

A further review of R.G.’s device did not find any other identifiable information on how the images were received or where they originated from. Court documents did say that the child pornography material was found on the device in a folder labeled, “Fun.”

The affidavit ended by saying that probable cause exists to conclude Michael Covey violated Title 18 of the United States Code, 2251(a) in relation to the sexual exploitation of children.