Judge rules ruse in ex-Rock Hill officer’s child porn arrest did not violate his rights
A ruse cops used to get a former Rock Hill police officer’s gun before interviewing him and arresting him for child pornography a year ago did not violate his rights, a federal judge in South Carolina has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge Sherri Lydon also refused to suppress evidence in the ongoing case against former Rock Hill Police Department detective and school resource officer Daniel Paul Shealy.
Shealy claimed his Miranda rights were violated because police didn’t read him those rights until several minutes into an interview — so he wanted evidence and statements from the interview thrown out.
Shealy claimed in court documents police violated his protections against illegal search and seizure. Police acted “without probable cause in the moments leading up to his interrogation,” and “his interrogation proceeded without a timely warning” of his rights.
Lydon ruled against Shealy on Tuesday on both issues.
“The court now finds that Shealy was neither seized nor in custody before he received a Miranda warning,” Lydon wrote in the order.
Former school resource officer has pleaded not guilty
Shealy spent 11 years with Rock Hill police as a detective, school resource officer at South Pointe High School and patrolman before York County deputies working with an FBI agent arrested him in late September 2023. Police said a tip from an exploited children center led to Shealy’s home internet address.
Rock Hill police terminated Shealy after his arrest.
A federal grand jury indicted Shealy in December.
He has pleaded not guilty in the pending case, records show.
Ruse to get Shealy to police station and take his gun
Before charges were brought in September 2023, investigators wanted to get Shealy — who was armed with his service weapon —from a training to the police station.
York County deputies with the office’s internet crimes unit said it was important to have any child porn suspect disarmed beforehand, after a suspect in an unrelated case committed suicide, according to the judge.
“A plan was conceived for RHPD to pretextually disarm Shealy so that YCSO could conduct an interview at the RHPD headquarters later the same day,” Judge Lydon wrote.
Lydon repeatedly used the word “ruse” in the order.
“Here, to be sure, Shealy was led to the police station under false pretenses,” Lydon wrote in the order.
A Rock Hill police supervisor told Shealy to come back to the station so his gun could be inspected. When Shealy got to the station, he surrendered his gun.
Interview and Miranda warning
A second supervisor then asked, “Shealy, you got a second?,” court documents show.
The second supervisor and Shealy then walked to a conference room where cybersex crimes investigators were waiting.
Shealy spoke to the investigators for around nine minutes about the allegations of child pornography, the court ruling states.
Shealy, a detective himself at the time, told a cybercrime deputy: “I know what you do,” the judge’s ruling states.
After the nine minutes, officers read him his Miranda rights, which include the right to remain silent. The interview then went on for more than an hour.
Miranda also allows someone to have a lawyer present during questioning. Anything a person says to police after that can be used in court.
Shealy was not arrested until later that day, the ruling states.
Judge Lydon stated in the court order that Shealy could have walked out of the interview with investigators at any time.
Lydon ruled that “a reasonable person in Shealy’s position would have understood he was free to decline the interview or otherwise terminate it once it began.”
What happens now?
Shealy has been free on bail since after he was arrested a year ago. Federal prosecutors indicted him three months later.
The federal allegations claim Shealy received or distributed child sex abuse videos on a social media platform between June and September 2023.
He faces 18 federal charges, court records show. The charges carry five to 20 years for a conviction.
No trial date has been set.
