Michael Nicholas Covey (Images via Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office, Western Tidewater Regional Jail)
Several months after pleading guilty, a former Virginia police officer and U.S. Marine was sentenced Wednesday to serve decades in federal prison for sexually exploiting children and receiving child pornography.
Former Newport News Police Sgt. Michael Nicholas Covey admitted in September 2022 to three charges total. Chief District Judge Mark S. Davis, the federal court docket shows, sentenced the former officer to 25 years behind bars.
According to the defense’s recounting of the facts of the case, as seen in a filing ahead of sentencing, Covey between Dec. 30, 2021 and Jan. 2, 2022 “took two photographs of a fully clothed, sleeping 10-year-old female child (‘Jane Doe’)” and “created three videos of himself masturbating in the presence of Jane Doe who was again fully clothed and sleeping, unaware of what the Defendant was doing.”
Those videos, Covey’s defense acknowledged, were found out because Covey sent them to an Ohio sex offender.
“The longest of the three videos was six (6) seconds. These items were initially recovered from electronic devices belonging to R.G., a convicted sex offender, during a criminal investigation in Ohio,” the court documents said. “As a result of the evidence recovered during the investigation into R.G. and additional investigation by the FBI, the Defendant was arrested on June 10, 2022. At the time of his arrest the Defendant was employed as a Newport News police officer.”
Once an investigation into the-then officer commenced, the defense noted, it was also learned that Covey used a phone to take photographs of himself “masturbating in the presence of a fully clothed, 14-year-old male child (‘John Doe’) who was playing a video game.”
“John Doe was focused on the video game and similarly not aware of what the Defendant was doing behind him,” the filing added.
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In requesting 15 years of punishment, the defense noted that Covey was active in the U.S. Marines from October 2001 to December 2005. He rose to the rank of sergeant.
“He was an infantryman who, although he did not discharge his service weapon, saw combat and was near several road bombs during his service,” the defense noted. “After discharge from the U.S. Marines, the Defendant moved to Newport News and joined the Newport News Police Department where he worked from January 2006 to June 17, 2022.”
Over the course of his lengthy law enforcement career, Covey also became a police sergeant.
Born in Des Plaines, Illinois, the husband and father of two “has a combined disability rating of 70% which results from a 40% disability for traumatic brain injury residuals, 10% for left shoulder strain and 10% for tinnitus,” said the defense. Covey’s lawyer also said his client was diagnosed with chronic PTSD that was exacerbated by his experiences in police work.
Covey has also struggled with alcoholism, the filing said:
However, it is abundantly clear he has an alcohol problem. He began drinking when he was 16 years old, mainly drinking on the weekends until he was approximately 30 years old. Thereafter, his alcohol consumption increased until he was drinking daily. The records from the Veteran’s Administration reflect Covey was diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder, Moderate because he was drinking 10-12 beers nightly. The Defendant’s wife reported that he would drink to the point of passing out and urinating himself.
In one letter submitted to the court, among others, Covey’s mother described her son as “highly remorseful” and “devastated by the damage he has done to his family.”
Meanwhile, the defense emphasized that the children Covey admittedly exploited sexually “were fully clothed and neither child was aware of what the Defendant was doing.”
The prosecution, in a filing of its own, responded that the impact of Covey’s crimes on the victims, particularly Jane Doe, will linger “long after he is released from incarceration”:
The direct victimization of the children in defendant’s life who trusted him will suffer from his conduct in ways that can take a lifetime from which to recover, if ever at all. This cannot be expressed more profoundly than by looking at the yet-to-be impact upon Jane Doe’s life as she is now a “known series” victim for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after defendant distributed at least two images and three videos of sexually explicit content he created with her. There is no retracting those images or videos. They shall remain in cyber circulation indefinitely and there is no telling if, when, or how many times they may retraumatize Jane Doe throughout her life or the repercussions she may have to endure because of them.
Prosecutors also suggested that the “scope” of the former officer’s conduct “will likely never be fully known” because he managed to “exquisitely” cover his tracks for an extended period of time.
Seeking 30 years of prison time, the prosecution said Covey “lived a dubious double life and fooled all those around him.”
“The defendant is a smart, educated, and capable man who grew up in a loving and supportive environment. He is, for the most part, physically healthy, and had everything in life most aspire to one day have or achieve. There is simply no excuse for his conduct,” federal prosecutors said. “The defendant is not a victim by any means, and those who are in this story, are suffering, and will continue to, indefinitely.”
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