Trial dates are set involving dozens of women who fear they were viewed or recorded on a hidden West Virginia State Police locker room camera.
Trial dates are set involving dozens of women who fear they were viewed or recorded on a hidden West Virginia State Police locker room camera.
Wheeling Attorney Teresa Toriseva said her legal team represents almost 80 former and current female law enforcement officers and whistleblowers.
“There are other lawyers that also have cases, so that isn’t the totality of the universe,” Toriseva said. “Unfortunately, civil litigation can take several years. What I can promise you is that transparency is coming. There is so much information that I think the public is even overwhelmed by the details.”
“It often is the only remedy and the only solution when there’s been misconduct or wrongdoing for lots of reasons,” Toriseva said. “Some of them are nefarious, some of them the way the government works, but in this case, it’s civil litigation.”
Toriseva said evidence will show the extent of actions that she said has terrorized so many women.
“Nude videos, sexual videos, on phones and computers that have been, in fact, recovered and are in the possession of authorities,” she said. We know all that and we still don’t know who, It’s absolutely terrorizing and our clients feel like the only remedy they had was civil litigation.”
In a recent interview with WVPB, State Police Superintendent Col. Jack Chambers said, amid still ongoing investigations, federal investigators say the West Virginia State Police and current members are not targets in the hidden camera probe. Chambers said since he became superintendent, just after the hidden camera issue went public, extensive and ongoing training and culture changes involve all State Police entities and individuals.
“We’ve changed everything from training hours at the Academy to accountability of hours,” Chambers told WVPB. “We put in a $450,000 security camera system in the state police academy. Just for checks and balances. To change your culture overnight, you want to try to change things as positively as you can in a progressive, positive way. I think that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Teresa Toriseva is currently a candidate for the state Attorney General.
It’s been a year since allegations of illicit recordings of cadets and other women at the West Virginia State Police barracks launched federal and state investigations into the law enforcement department.
In the aftermath, Col. J.C. Chambers was named superintendent of the state police. He spoke with reporter Chris Schulz to provide some updates on the investigations, as well as to discuss reforms he has implemented during his tenure.
It’s been a year since allegations of illicit recordings of cadets and other women at the West Virginia State Police barracks launched federal and state investigations into the law enforcement department.
In the aftermath, Col. J.C. Chambers was named superintendent of the state police. He spoke with reporter Chris Schulz to provide some updates on the investigations, as well as to discuss reforms he has implemented during his tenure.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about your tenure so far? We’re approaching the one year mark?
Chambers: It’s been a long year, I would have to tell you that. One year since I’ve been back to the state police. Been a very trying year, but it’s also been a very successful year. I feel we have great people in this organization, whether that be troopers you see running up down the road every day answering calls or our civilian staff. We have a great mixture of civilians and sworn members in the West Virginia State Police, which is one of the reasons and my love for the state police to come back, as asked by the governor’s office, as superintendent.
Schulz: We’ve been talking about this timeline of a year. And I want to be clear, we’re talking about the allegations of recordings in the women’s barracks, potentially of underage minors, as well as some allegations and accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse. As I understand, this has been under investigation now for almost an entire year. Can you tell me a little bit about why these investigations are ongoing and have not been concluded yet?
Chambers: There were numerous internal investigations opened up as quickly as we could once we figured out what direction we needed to go in. There were federal investigations opened up working with the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI. One of those is still pending. I can’t comment on that one. But the other ones, I have a Department of Justice letter that I’ll read to you stating that they no longer consider the West Virginia State Police or any of its members to be a target. And like I say several members, names that were out or come up in investigations are no longer with the State Police. We’re just we’re moving forward the best we can. We’ve changed everything from training hours at Academy to accountability of hours. We put in a $450,000 security system camera system in the state police academy. Just for checks and balances. We’re working hand in hand with a lot of other state agencies now. Our purchasing and our purchasing accountability agreements have changed drastically. We work with everybody trying to improve to make our agency better and make sure we don’t have anything like this happen in the future.
I’ve got a letter here, dated from Will Thompson. He’s the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District. And it basically reads like this:
‘This letter is to inform you that consistent with Justice Manual 911-155, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District no longer considers former Trooper Mike Miller to be a target of an ongoing civil rights investigation in the Southern District of West Virginia. Additionally, the United States Attorney’s Office Southern District no longer considers the West Virginia State Police or any of its members to be targets in an ongoing investigation in the Southern District of West Virginia, involving a camera being placed in the West Virginia State Police locker room, a claim of religious persecution at the West Virginia State Police Academy and the misuse of the West Virginia State Police fleet.’
Chambers: Which is our cars and our vehicles and things like that. It says:
‘Please be advised this, this letter does not preclude the United States Attorney’s Office from re-instituting an investigation into the allegations detailed above and identifying any member as a target should circumstances change. The US Attorney’s Office Southern District appreciates the cooperation from you…
Chambers: Which was me
…the superintendent and the West Virginia State Police to have provided this office and the federal investigators in the investigations of potential wrongdoing by its members. The West Virginia State Police has been and continues to be a vital partner to the US Attorney’s Office and look forward to continuing to work with you and other members of the State Police.’
Chambers: Signed by the US Attorney.
Schulz: What possible action needs to be taken to ensure that these investigations are concluded in a timely manner. It sounds like you’re waiting for external factors. If I understand you.
Chambers: You’re right on point here, Chris. And also that we’re looking into this stuff as well. We’ll look into stuff even after they conclude what their findings are whether they decide to move forward with something or not. And if it’s something administrative, then we’ll handle it from that point on.
I know a year is not a long time. I mean, it seems like five years to be honest with you. But we have completed a lot of this stuff within a year. And there’s stuff that we can control and get done and I feel that we’ve done it as aggressively and as fast as we can. I mean my senior staff and the members in this agency are ready for this stuff to be done, completed so they can go about their jobs and feel right about the West Virginia State Police. I think it’s changing, I think it is. Our people are working. They’re out. They know they have the support from headquarters and doing this job day to day when you’re out in the field, you want to feel you are supported when you’re out here dealing with what we have to deal with daily.
Schulz: I would like to hear more about the changes that you’ve implemented.
Chambers: Culture is what members understand as an acceptable behavior. I think for me coming back, once you’re held accountable, I want them to do their job, but also want them to feel secure in knowing they’re going to be backed out here when they’re trying to do the right thing, Chris. They have to have that, they have to have that feeling. I think it is coming back. Culture’s what a community perceives as acceptable. We in the state police feel we have support in West Virginia, they don’t want to see things like this happening.
As far as changing culture, putting in a camera system, making the changes we have at the academy. We’ve been around 104 years, Chris, and to sit here and tell you, we haven’t had to make changes through that104 years, we’d be lying to you. But to change your culture overnight, it’s been around 104 years. You want to try to change things as positively as you can in a progressive, positive way. And I think that’s what we’re trying to do all the way down to our people reporting to the academy.
I’ve been asked in the past, well, how are females going to do when they come to the academy now as a cadet or a basic officer? Well, a couple things we’ve done. We put a full time female officer supervisor at the academy, they’re engaged with her. She’s doing a great job over there. The deputy superintendent meets with any female coming on that property up there when they report, then midstream, they’re talked to and at the end of their training they’re asked questions to make sure that they felt comfortable there. We have expectations for them. But they also have an outlet if they need to talk to someone or need to speak with someone. We’ve implemented things like that, that, now it’s just a normal procedure or protocol that we do.
In the governor’s Wednesday briefing, Chambers addressed questions about ongoing state police investigations, including the extent of hidden camera recordings in the police academy women’s locker room.
West Virginia State Police (WVSP) Col. Jack Chambers is no longer the “interim” superintendent of the agency. He is now the full-time superintendent, according to Gov. Jim Justice.
Chambers came over from the Capitol Police four months ago after former WVSP Superintendent Jan Cahill resigned amid a flurry of charges of trooper wrongdoing.
In the governor’s Wednesday briefing, Chambers addressed questions about ongoing state police investigations, including the extent of hidden camera recordings in the police academy women’s locker room. He said he has sent letters of apology to 71 women, all law enforcement officers filing lawsuits, who have used that women’s locker room in academy training.
“We did send an apology letter out to any female that may have been victimized by a hidden camera in the locker room,” Chambers said. “Again, unacceptable. I said that on day one.”
Among recent changes, Chambers said state police are installing a new 60 camera security system, have made an academy curriculum adjustment to provide a better educational environment, and leadership will have open communications and regular meetings with all female academy trainees.
“We’ve upgraded our female barracks with in-house female staff members,” he said. “It’s actually a full-time sergeant and a female who went to Academy. We’ve had females over the years but that is her main job now.”
Chambers also said, after a number of retirements, transfers and reassignments within his four-month tenure, he’s also fired four troopers.
“We’ve separated employment with four troopers that were failing to meet the standard and expectations of the state police,” Chambers said.
Chambers said he’s changing daily activity reports on hours worked and approved. He said a first line supervisor has to approve any hours worked.
“No matter what your rank is, it goes to the next level supervisor for approval,” he said.
He said the FBI will teach the academy civil rights class, emphasizing the seriousness of acting under “the color of law.”
Regarding specifics in the multiple WVSP investigations that have been ongoing for months, Chambers said he is still limited on what he can reveal at this time.
He said the state charges for domestic battery on an accused trooper is in the hands of the Ritchie County Prosecutor. He noted that alleged trooper rapes are currently under investigation by federal investigators, along with civil litigation.
He also said the hidden camera at the police academy is currently subject to federal and internal investigations and both of those are in action now.
“Our academy is not completely broke,” Chambers said. “Some would think that, but it is not. Staff changes have been made. I can say the camera systems are in the process of being upgraded to the top of the line so we will know who’s there and who’s not.”
Chambers said he is in the process of working with the governor’s office to create a WVSP/Marshall University Health Line.
“A line to call in if someone at the academy is having a problem or an issue,” Chambers said. “We want them to have someone to speak to if they feel the need.”
More than 70 women have now reportedly filed, or are preparing to file, suit against the West Virginia State Police because of an admitted hidden camera in the police academy women’s locker room.
More than 70 women have now reportedly filed, or are preparing to file, suit against the West Virginia State Police (WVSP) because of an admitted hidden camera in the police academy women’s locker room.
Twenty-year veteran trooper Talia Divita’s civil suit, filed May 25, 2023, claims she and others were secretly filmed.
Gov. Jim Justice and State Police Interim Superintendent Col. Jack Chambers have both said the camera was placed in the locker room from approximately 2015 to 2020. Chambers is leading an investigation into the incidents.
The suit claims Divita was filmed changing her clothes and showering during 2015, 2016 and 2017.
In the complaint, Divita’s lawsuit claims supervisors knew about the camera and covered it up. The complaint alleges then WVSP Superintendent Jan Cahill was aware that officers destroyed a thumb drive with locker room video evidence and took no disciplinary actions.
The complaint states that Justice Chief of Staff Brian Abraham has said the hidden camera “was not motion sensitive, it continued to run and that individual would, from time to time, replace the recording device and the battery source.”
The suit claims the WVSP actions were “willful and malicious with a reckless and outrageous indifference to the health, safety and welfare of others.”
Divita accuses the agency of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, gender discrimination, negligence and invasion of privacy.
Divita’s Charleston attorney in the case, John-Mark Atkinson, discussed his client’s level of outrage.
“It’s clearly a gross violation of her privacy,” Atkinson said. “A locker room should be the one place you should be free from worrying about others viewing you in that way. She’s equally as disturbed and outraged by the fact that evidence of such illegal behavior was destroyed by high ranking officials in the State Police.”
Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva was one of the first to file a “notice to sue” the state government entity on behalf of multiple female law enforcement officers. All law enforcement officers, such as local police and sheriff’s deputies, train at the WVSP Academy and use the locker room and shower facilities.
Toriseva now has a reported 67 clients; other attorneys across the state have more clients.
Justice said last week that if there are a “bunch of bad eggs” in the West Virginia State Police, the state should get them identified and held accountable.
“No matter what it takes, get to the very bottom of all of it,” Justice said. “The guilty parties should suffer the consequences. There’s no excuse. These are people that we place our trust in. The guilty party should suffer.”
Justice said he “has faith” in the WVSP’s internal investigation into the hidden camera violations.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting asked the WVSP for an update on the investigation but received no response by the time this story was published.
In a Wednesday administration media briefing, Gov. Jim Justice talked about alleged rapes by a state trooper that are now under federal investigation.
In a Wednesday administration media briefing, Gov. Jim Justice talked about alleged rapes by a state trooper that are now under federal investigation.
Charleston Attorney Dante DiTrapino sent a notice to sue letter to the state on his client’s behalf. The law requires a 30-day notice before bringing a civil suit on a government entity. The letter details allegations that in December 2021, Trooper Michael J. Miller drugged, kidnapped and raped an unnamed woman.
“She is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and is in intense treatment and counseling in connection with the physical, mental, emotional and psychological injuries visited upon her by Miller,” the letter states.
The letter notes the FBI is aware of Miller’s alleged acts.
“She woke up naked in her bed, with blood, urine and feces all over her,” the letter continues. “Her earrings were ripped out of her ears, her hair was pulled out, her teeth were damaged, and she had been raped vaginally and sodomized with some instrument. This is all confirmed by the rape unit at the emergency department of CAMC’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital.”
In the briefing, Justice offered few details about this particular ongoing investigation.
“I think it’s primarily one person, maybe multiple rapes,” Justice said. “The FBI has the investigation at this point in time. I do believe it’s one person.”
A check of the state’s public database shows a Michael J. Miller with the West Virginia State Police earned $74,905 in 2022, the year after the alleged incident.
In the briefing, acting State Police Superintendent Jack Chambers said two senior troopers have been reassigned.
Former Chief of Staff Services at State Police headquarters Major Shallon Oglesby will now serve as a first lieutenant in procurement rather than the previous rank of major. Former Major James Findley will also now serve as a first lieutenant.
Chambers said he has promoted Jim Mitchell to a chief of staff role highlighting media relations.
“I do feel like the decision with Jim Mitchell will be well accepted,” Chambers said. “He’s an honest person and a very good speaker. He’ll be dealing with all the media outlets.”
Chamber said no trooper has been fired as of yet. He said the investigation into an alleged theft of cash by a senior trooper at the Mardi Gras Casino was nearing completion.
Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva has filed a letter of intent to sue on behalf of several women worried that their images may have been caught on a camera that was placed in the State Police Academy women’s locker room.
Justice said Chambers needs more time to further investigate a hidden camera incident that may or may not include multiple victims.
“For all we knew 10 days ago, there was a thumb drive,“ Justice said. “There was a videotape made. We don’t know how many people have been filmed. You know, it was told and represented to us that only one person had been filmed. I don’t like that, but I can’t dispute that until we get to the bottom of an investigation.”
Justice continues to say the bodycam video he viewed regarding an investigation into a person’s death during a confrontation with troopers on I-81 near Martinsburg was “very concerning.”
“You’ve got a trooper in the dark with somebody walking down the interstate, which they shouldn’t be there at all,” Justice said. “Somebody’s walking down the interstate and a trooper is in the dark with traffic flying by him at 80 miles an hour. Granted, these people are supposed to be trained to be able to handle all this.”
Justice said he will be glad to release the bodycam footage upon a prosecutor’s OK in this continuing State Police investigation.
Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday that public statements made by resigned State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill that he was blindsided by the investigation and he followed protocol across the board are false.
Gov. Jim Justice said Wednesday that public statements made by resigned State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill that he was blindsided by the investigation and he followed protocol across the board are false.
“It holds credence that we discussed those claims in my driveway,” Justice said. “Beyond that, I don’t have any earthly idea how it holds any credence.”
Cahill spoke Tuesday on MetroNews Talkline. The former Greenbrier County Sheriff, who Justice appointed to lead the State Police in 2017, said his role in multiple State Police wrongdoing investigations were misrepresented or distorted.
Cahill said he took no action on a video camera installed in the State Police Academy’s women’s locker room showers because the perpetrator was dead when he found out about the incident and that it happened before his tenure. He said that the one woman caught on video tape wanted the matter closed, a thumb drive with the video was destroyed, so, there was no perpetrator, no evidence, no accuser, no victim and no required action
Cahill made the public statement that a senior trooper caught on camera taking an envelope of money dropped by a patron out of the Mardi Gras Casino was exonerated by casino and lottery investigators. He said that he couldn’t fire the trooper because he retired after the incident. Cahill questioned whether the money was allegedly stolen, saying he “picked up unclaimed property.”
Justice said the trooper money grab was stealing, pure and simple.
“This is not somebody stealing copper out of the lines way back up Whoo Hoo Hollow, this is a police officer stealing money,” he said.
In the briefing, Justice’s Chief of Staff, Brian Abraham, questioned Cahill’s leadership abilities.
“The only way you maintain your credibility is through the integrity you demonstrate and then being transparent,” Abraham said. “It appears that all efforts were taken down there to try to keep things from people that were not good news, keeping it concealed in an effort not to demean their reputation. He did not understand the roles and responsibilities associated with being the superintendent of the State Police.”
Abraham said Cahill mishandled the women’s locker room camera probe.
“When he became aware in 2020 that there’d been a videotape involving members of his staff, even though one was deceased, there were others that destroyed key and relevant evidence, yet suffered no investigation or any discipline for that misconduct,” Abraham said.
Abraham said Cahill shirked his duties in not firing a senior trooper who allegedly stole money at the Mardi Gras Casino, noting both legal precedent and state code shows Cahill had complete authority to dismiss the trooper.
“With regard to the incident at Mardi Gras he indicated that he didn’t have the authority to terminate the trooper for misconduct and that that absolutely is not correct,” he said.
Abraham refuted Cahill’s claim that he was the fall guy and victim of vendettas.
“Colonel Chambers has now taken over,” Abraham said. “He’s resolved to have matters reinvestigated and determine whether there was misconduct.”
Abraham said investigations into old and new State Police misconduct charges would be reopened, continued or commenced.
Newly appointed interim State Police Superintendent Lt. Col. Jack Chambers said in the briefing there are multiple things going on that will be addressed, including personnel.
“I’m going to look at every position that is disappointing in the State Police and evaluate those,” Chambers said. “I have to get some information from everybody first, but I can’t give you a timetable.”
Abraham said several matters have been turned over to federal authorities.
