NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) — A former sergeant with Newport News Police has pleaded guilty to the sexual exploitation of children and receiving child pornography.
On Thursday, 39-year-old Michael Nicholas Covey pleaded guilty to two counts of the sexual exploitation of children and one count of receipt of child pornography. His sentencing is set for February 22, 2023. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison.
Covey was arrested back in June. He had been with the department for 16 years and was recently assigned to the Special Operations K-9 Division prior to his arrest.
Court documents say Covey used a child to “engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purposes of producing a visual depiction of such conduct and distributing those images to a sex offender in Ohio.”
Following a federal search warrant, analysis of the imagery of apparent child exploitation led detectives to a home in Newport News and ultimately to Covey’s arrest.
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