A Forest Park police officer was recently arrested and charged with several felony offenses after a woman accused him of harassing her, officials announced Tuesday.
James Cameron Kea later went on to confess to several accusations, claiming he was getting his ex-girlfriend back, legal documents revealed.
Kea is facing 13 felony charges, including computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, identity fraud, computer forgery and possession of cocaine. He is also facing a misdemeanor charge of stalking.
The Sandy Springs police department arrested him Feb. 7 and he was booked into the Fulton County jail the following day. He remained there Thursday, but was granted a bond of $61,500.
On Jan. 28, the department received a call from a woman saying her ex-boyfriend was harassing her, authorities stated. Detectives said they discovered Kea harassed the woman on “several different occasions.” Sandy Springs police spokesman Sgt. Leon Millholland confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the alleged crimes “definitely” happened while Kea was off-duty, but officials are still trying to determine if they also occurred while he was on-duty.
Arrest warrants obtained Thursday showed that the victim reported a series of incidents, including receiving messages from unknown numbers, her Delta account being hacked with flight changes made, her Royal Caribbean account being compromised with cruises canceled, attempts to obtain credit cards in her name, a dating app account created using her details and her Facebook account being hacked.
The victim told police the incidents happened between October and the start of February, warrants revealed. She also told officials she broke up with Kea in January.
License plate readers throughout the city of Sandy Springs picked up Kea’s car at least five times between Jan. 13 and Feb. 2, according to the warrants.
“This clearly shows a pattern of surveillance with the intent to harass or intimidate the victim,” officials said in the warrants.
During an interview with authorities, Kea “confessed to committing” most of the charges being brought against him, except for stalking and possession of cocaine, warrants stated. He told officials that the victim “made his life a living hell by breaking up with him” and that “he did this on purpose to get back at her,” according to the warrants.
Kea began working for Forest Park police on Dec. 16. The department has not responded to the AJC’s inquiries.
The last time Kea held a law enforcement position in Georgia was in June 2014, when he resigned while under investigation from the Riverdale Police Department, records from the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council show.
Riverdale police Chief Todd Spivey, on a call with the AJC, said he worked for the department when Kea was hired in December 2010 but he was not chief, “the hiring authority or the disciplinary authority.” According to POST records, Kea was the “alleged subject” of nine disciplinary complaints, seven on which were sustained.
He was placed on the Early Warning System, which Spivey said is common practice for officers who receive a number of violations, in April 2014, and signed acknowledging that he was under review. He then received three additional complaints for his behavior before resigning, POST records show.
“He just had a number of policy violations from the city of Riverdale and he resigned while there were still three open files on him,” Spivey said.
There was one instance when Kea received a conduct violation after taking a video of a person in a wheelchair, Spivey said. Disciplinary records obtained Thursday state that the video was taken in a “comedic manner” and posted to social media.
Records also reveal Kea was once reprimanded for going to court “improperly dressed” after he showed up wearing a mix of his department uniform and “civilian” clothing.
In another instance, tobacco products, a “crack pipe,” a pocket knife and cigarette rolling paper “commonly known for smoking marijuana” were found in different places in his department-issued vehicle when it was taken for an emissions test, records show. The report does not state if the items belonged to Kea, only that they were left in his vehicle and that he “failed to inspect his vehicle at the end” of his work day.
Sandy Springs police did not release further details into the latest incident. POST records show Kea’s Basic Law Enforcement certification was suspended after his arrest.
The AJC has reached out to Kea’s attorney for comment.
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
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