Ex-Homeland Security employee gets 8-year sentence for molesting young girls

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A former employee with the Department of Homeland Security accused of molesting two young girls and inappropriately touching a third was sentenced to eight years in prison.

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Terry Edward Keegan, 60, of Irvine, was convicted on March 23 of a felony count of lewd acts on a minor younger than 14 as well as single misdemeanor counts each of child annoyance, sexual battery, simple battery and destroying or concealing evidence, The Orange County Register reported.

One of the alleged victims has lived with Keegan since she was about 4 years old and her grandmother took custody of her, the Los Angeles Times reported. The other two alleged victims were friends of hers, Deputy District Attorney Juliet Oliver said.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Andre Manssourian, while passing sentence, cited the trust that Keegan had violated, according to the Register. In addition to his post with Homeland Security, Keegan worked with the Transportation Security Administration and was a reserve deputy for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

“It turns out the fox was guarding the hen house, and undoubtedly the defendant took advantage of a position of trust,” Manssourian said.

One of the victims, now a teen, told the judge that Keegan “knew exactly what he was doing.”

“I was young and vulnerable and I was taken advantage of,” she said, according to the Register. “We were children and the man who was supposed to be protecting us hurt us.”

Beginning in 2011, Keegan allegedly molested an 8-year-old girl who lived next door to the home he shared with his girlfriend and another young girl, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Keegan was also accused of molesting the young girl who lived in his home as well as another girl who lived next door to the family after they moved to a new home in 2015.

In December 2021, charges were filed against Keegan, but they were sealed due to his employment with Homeland Security, the Times reported.

The charges were unsealed on Jan. 26, 2022. When officers arrived to serve a search warrant, Keegan had a copy of the criminal complaint on his bed along with boxed-up electronic devices and laptops, Oliver said. Investigators also found a hard drive that had been destroyed and a thumb drive in his garbage that could not be pieced back together, the newspaper reported.

Prosecutors alleged that Keegan had taken photographs of the victims through the years.

“One wonders what was on those hard drives,” Manssourian said during the sentencing hearing, according to the Register. The judge called the destruction of the computer equipment a “cloud that hangs over this case.”

Keegan’s attorney, Jay Moorhead of the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, argued for probation, according to the Southern California News Group. Moorhead said that Keegan grew up with an abusive alcoholic father but pointed to his public service and lack of a criminal record.

Moorhead denied that Keegan’s behavior was sexual toward the victims. He said that Keegan loved to shop, enjoyed photography and would playfully throw the girls around when they were in the pool.

“He is a quirky guy,” Moorhead said during the trial. “Could that be misinterpreted? Sure, of course it could.”