Former Sedgwick County deputy loses license after lying about having sex on duty
A former Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office deputy was stripped of his law enforcement certification after admitting to having sex with a civilian employee while on duty and lying when being questioned about it.
Kelly Meehan was employed by the sheriff’s office from Aug. 16, 2021 to April 21, 2023, according to a summary order of revocation from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.
Earlier this year, two deputies accused of having sex with a civilian employee resigned after an investigation into the allegations was underway, The Eagle reported.
The investigation started in December 2022 and ended in April. Five deputies were alleged to have had sex with the employee. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter said Meehan was one of the two deputies who resigned amid the investigation.
In a previous email, the sheriff’s office said two deputies and a civilian employee gave false statements and tried to “intentionally deceive investigators,” The Eagle reported.
The Eagle reached out to Meehan and he declined to comment through a text message.
The summary order of revocation said Meehan “was repeatedly and intentionally dishonest during an internal investigation conducted by a law enforcement agency.”
The order gave this account:
The sheriff’s office started a professional standards investigation after a civilian employee told another employee that she had sexual relations with several deputies while they were on duty. She named Meehan as one of them.
Investigators questioned Meehan about his alleged relationship with the employee on Jan. 6, 2023. Meehan denied having sexual relations with the employee and said the last time they spoke was on Jan. 4.
However, Meehan made statements during the interview that he should not have known unless he had spoken with the employee about her interview, which was on Jan. 5.
When questioned about this, Meehan admitted that he spoke with the employee before his interview but said that she did not share details about her interview with him.
Near the end of his interview, Meehan asked to change his statement and admitted that he had been in a sexual relationship with the employee, and some sexual contact had happened while he was on duty.
Meehan also said he had lied several times during his interview. He said the employee had told him that she had been interviewed but didn’t mention their sexual relations and that was “fine.”
After a private conversation between Meehan and the employee was described to him during the interview, Meehan told investigators everything he knew about the investigation and about what he had done.
Lying can cause officers to lose their certification. It also would require the officers to be on a Brady-Giglio list kept by the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office. Federal law requires that office to keep a list of officers who have policy violations that could call into question their credibility as a witness in a trial.
