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.
After legislation passed last March, as of January 1, 2024, West Virginia drivers can now go two years without a state vehicle inspection, not one. But not everyone thinks that’s a great idea.
After legislation passed last March, as of January 1, 2024, West Virginia drivers can now go two years without a state vehicle inspection, not one.
But not everyone thinks that’s a great idea.
Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, has offered proposals to do away with inspections altogether, and thinks this is at least an initial compromise. Linville said only 12 states have vehicle inspections and data shows that inspections affecting highway safety are inconclusive.
“There’s a lot of data,” Linville said. “Which would say that drivers in Kentucky for instance, aren’t any worse than drivers in West Virginia, and they don’t require a safety inspection.”
Billy Kepple owns the Charleston area Marty’s Tire and Auto Shop chain. He said his shops do thousands of state inspections a year. Kepple said the two-year plan is a “terrible idea.” He said many drivers come in mistakenly thinking their car is in tip top shape, and extending the inspection time period will put unsafe cars on the road.
“They get dinged for safety things all the time,” Kepple said. “I’m talking about brakes, shocks, lights being out, tires being bald, wires hanging out of tires, wheel bearings bad. All these things, they’ve not noticed when they drive their car every day.”
Linville said vehicles have gotten more reliable over the years, and the inspection code has not been modified in decades.
“We all know that at 100,000 miles a car used to be about to fall apart,” Linville said. “Anymore, you can get 200,000 miles out of most vehicles. We’re trying to keep up with the times.”
Kepple said the main reason cars log thousands of miles is that they get regular safety inspections.
“All these things can be bad, and they just keep driving it because it still drives straight,” Kepple said. “They get in and they turn the key and it goes. And most people just don’t check their stuff.”
Linville said getting an inspection sticker has a tendency to take 30 to 45 minutes, and people can try to get it in on their lunch break. He said this is just an attempt to reduce some of that hassle on the people in the state of West Virginia.
“The reality is that oftentimes, that’s something that people have to have to take off work to go comply with this mandate from the government,” Linville said.
Keeple said with the new code, yes, in 730 days, you only save 45 minutes.
“But you don’t know if the car behind you has bald tires, or if the brakes are good, or if the ball joints are good,” he said. “It might not be your car, it’s the car behind you. It’s the car behind you, or in front of you and your kids. I just think it’s a bad deal.”
State inspections costs will change from $14 a year to $19 every two years.
“It is a small cost savings,” Linville said. “But we think that really the savings is going to come with people not having to take off work for a half day or so every year to go get this sort of thing accomplished.”
Kepple said he had just returned from the State Police barracks to pick up his new inspection stickers.
“I was in line with about 13 other shops,” Kepple said. “We had a little roundtable discussion about it and I didn’t hear one guy think this is a good idea. Not one guy.”
One of the troopers involved in the Martinsburg shooting Sunday has lost part of his leg.
Updated on Tuesday Dec. 19, 2023 at 11:48 a.m.
One of the troopers involved in the Martinsburg shooting Sunday has lost part of his leg.
West Virginia State Police Maj. James Mitchell has verified that part of Trooper Abe Bean’s left leg had to be amputated at the Inova Fairfax Medical Center in Virginia.
Mitchell said Bean was shot in the chest, in the shoulder and took two rounds in the leg. Doctors had to amputate his left leg above the knee. Bean remains in critical condition. Mitchell said Trooper Cadin Spessert, who was shot once in the Sunday night incident, has been released from the hospital.
Mitchell said that Bean’s father, a retired state trooper, posted a message on Facebook that said his son’s first surgery lasted for eight hours from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday. Mitchell said the amputation came after that.
Mitchell verified that dozens of West Virginia troopers and state police from Virginia have been at the hospital to show support. Mitchell said State Police Superintendent Col. Jack Chambers visited Bean Monday. There was also a prayer service led by state police current and former chaplains.
Updated on Monday Dec. 18, 2023 at 2:25 p.m.
As of Monday afternoon, after being shot four times, Trooper A.A. Bean remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Trooper C.D. Spessert was shot once and was stable.
West Virginia State Police Chief of Staff Major Jim Mitchell said he is hopeful Trooper Bean will survive.
“We hope that he’s going to survive it just fine,” Mitchell said. “It’s just at this point and early into the treatment, you just don’t know how things could transpire for good or perhaps, to make things more complex, but we do appreciate the prayers.”
Mitchell said when Tobias Ganey refused to open his door or come outside after an extended time of negotiations, the troopers had no choice but to gain entry. Mitchell said that’s when gunfire began.
“We won’t try to shoot someone unless we just have to,” Mitchell said. “In this case, as soon as the door was open, they received fire.”
Ganey died at the scene. Mitchell said the warrant was apparently for Ganey committing battery against his neighbor. An incident investigation remains underway.
Original Story
Two Eastern Panhandle State Police troopers are in the hospital after a shots-fired incident late Sunday evening in Martinsburg.
A State Police press release notes Trooper A.A. Bean was shot four times and Trooper C.D. Spessert was shot once while attempting to serve an arrest warrant on a battery charge to 60-year-old Tobias Ganey.
Just before 11 p.m., police say Ganey refused to open the door of his home. The troopers communicated with Ganey for an extended time, and finally made entry into the home to make the arrest. Ganey immediately began firing his handgun at the troopers, who returned fire.
Ganey died at the scene.
Trooper Bean underwent surgery for serious injuries; Trooper Spessert was treated and admitted for observation.
Both Troopers are in stable condition this morning and the investigation is ongoing.
“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said.
As a House of Delegates member in the 2023 general session, Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, said he had no idea in voting for House Bill 3360, to create the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security, that he would end up holding that position.
“Absolutely not,”’ Honaker said. “It was never discussed, and never occurred to me.”
Appointed by Gov. Jim Justice, Honaker said his primary duty is to conduct inquiries and, where needed, full scope investigations.
“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said. “Those investigations would be conducted in conjunction with the appropriate law enforcement agency if that were something that was necessary.”
Honaker is Inspector General for all the agencies that are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Those include West Virginia State Police, Division of Corrections, Fire Marshal’s Office, Parole Board, the Division of Emergency Management, the Division of Justice and Community Services. He says there’s “about somewhere north of 5000 employees” in Homeland Security positions.
Honaker said he will work with the Corrections Inspector General on the many allegations and lawsuits facing that department and conduct his own prison inspection tour.
“I’m going to be traveling around and personally visiting some of the prisons and jails and looking at the actual conditions there to make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “There is obviously pending litigation, so we are constantly reviewing that information as it comes in to see if there are more things we need to be doing or looking at to make adjustments.”
He hopes to create an internal homeland security fraud, waste, and abuse hotline.
“So that employees within organizations that maybe see things that they would not otherwise be comfortable reporting, they could do that anonymously,” he said.
Honaker said he will let the State Police investigations run their course, not ruling out any reviews.
“I don’t think there’s any cause for me to become involved because those investigations have been taking place for some months now,” Honaker said. “They are being appropriately investigated. There could be some cases that we would go back and review to maybe make sure they were handled appropriately with the previous administration.”
Honaker plans to conduct staff inspections of all departments and agencies, to ensure accountability.
“Are there checks and balances? Are there systems of accountability to make sure that these things are not occurring in agencies, whether it’s mismanagement of money or fraud, waste or abuse,” Honaker said. “We would only know that by actually sitting down with employees, reviewing files, interviewing employees, about their position.”
Honaker said he will report investigation findings to Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia. He said he will not determine guilt or innocence.
“What I will fully do is conduct thorough, complete, fair, impartial investigations, to determine the facts and to produce reports that would allow the Secretary or the governor to make logical conclusions as to whether the allegations are substantiated or not,” he said. “I have no interest in being anything less than completely fair and impartial.”
Multiple sex offenders taken into custody were found to be non-compliant with the sex offender registry.
Led by the West Virginia State Police and the U.S. Marshals Southern District of West Virginia CUFFED task force, the recently concluded ‘Operation Blue and Gold Shield’ targeted non-compliant sex offenders in Kanawha, Wood and Wirt Counties and surrounding areas.
Multiple sex offenders taken into custody were found to be non-compliant with the sex offender registry. In total, 39 felony arrests were made in the operation, to include nine for violations of the sex offender registry, and five for sex related crimes.
Others with various warrants were also taken into custody for crimes of first-degree murder, attempted murder, second- and third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, soliciting a minor via computer, escape, delivery of controlled substances, and supervised release violations.
A West Virginia State Police fact sheet shows there are5,438 registered sex offenders in West Virginia. Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Waggamon says those who don’t report properly can be more likely to be repeat offenders.
“A lot of these guys, they’ll say, ‘Hey, I got one Facebook, they will have four Facebooks,” Waggamon said. “They’re not supposed to have internet access, and they have internet access.”
Waggamon said there are stipulations to the sex offenders being on the sex offender registry, explaining they’re required to report certain things.
“Some of those things are addresses, phone numbers, social media accounts, vehicles,” he said. “When they’re non-compliant, they’re not reporting these particular things.”
One sex offender, Gabriel Allen Hargus, 46, of Mineral Wells, was also indicted in federal court for failure to register as a sex offender.
Hargus is wanted by the U.S. Marshals, the West Virginia State Police, and the West Virginia Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of Hargus or any non-compliant sex offender, you can submit a tip anonymously using USMS Tips or call 1-877-WANTED-2. Tips are kept confidential.
In a related case, Parkersburg YMCA CEO Jeff Olson has resigned after state police charged him with sex crimes involving a juvenile girl.
A State Police press release notes that in 2017 and 2018, Olson, previous Head Coach of the tennis team at Parkersburg High School, allegedly engaged in sexually explicit conversations and distributed sexually explicit images with a juvenile female athlete in Wood County.
Olson was arrested on (1) count of the Solicitation of a Minor via Computer and (3) counts of Distribution of Obscene Matter to a Minor.
He was arraigned before a Wood County Magistrate and a surety bond was set at $40,000.Olsonposted bond and now awaits a preliminary hearing.
