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.
The latest legal complaint concerning the West Virginia State Police hidden camera investigation outlines an alleged culture of misconduct towards women, with accusations of sexual assault and concerns over reforms.
Thelatest legal complaint concerning the West Virginia State Police (WVSP) hidden camera investigation outlines an alleged culture of misconduct towards women, with accusations of sexual assault and concerns over reforms.
The complaint filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court alleged that there were multiple victims and named multiple defendants involved in a hidden camera placed in the State Police Academy women’s locker room beginning in 2015.
Bryan Edwards, a Morgantown attorney and member of the legal team, is representing 70 West Virginia female law enforcement officers who trained at the academy and used the women’s locker room. He said evidence shows that beyond an invasion of privacy, male academy individuals exploited women.
“They preyed on the cadets,” Edwards said. “Making allegations that if they wished to get through the academy, then they would be subjected to their unwanted advances.”
The internal State Police investigation into the hidden camera incident has been underway for more than three months. Edwards said some defendants named in the complaint continue to work there.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice voiced frustration with no investigation findings yet, and acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations and had a message for the 70 West Virginia plaintiffs.
“A million apologies,” Justice said. “There’s no excuse. It’s ridiculous stuff that has happened. For 70 women, maybe there’s a goodly percentage that this did not happen to, but can you just imagine not knowing?”
Edwards believes the internal investigation will not change an alleged culture of sexism and coverups.
“It doesn’t appear that some of the bad actors that we know have had any type of consequences at all,” he said. “So my faith in the internal investigation is very limited.”
Justice said he has full faith that the State Police hidden camera probe will resolve the issue, and said reforms have already been instituted. But he also said he has limited patience.
“I really do believe that those changes are either happening, or have already been made,” Justice said. “We have investigations going on and I think we got to let that play out. But I’m not comfortable with all the bad stuff that’s happened. I want to see action. I have the most confidence in the State Police and love them with all my soul. But we don’t need to keep messing around with this. We need to move and move as swiftly as we possibly can.”
Edwards said his clients have seen no evidence of reforms at this point.
“If someone is feeling that they are being harassed or mistreated, that there was something outside, they can go and express those concerns,” Edwards said. “And it’s not just going to be the status quo, which I think has been the issue down there for years.”
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.
State Police have offered no timetable for investigation results, saying due diligence is their utmost concern.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting asked the State Police for an update on both the investigation and reforms instituted but did not receive a response before this story was published.
