West Virginia State Police Sued Over Hidden Cameras Placed In ‘Junior Troopers’ Locker Room

Failures

from the apex-predators dept

Law enforcement officers and sexual assault go hand-in-hand. Give someone enough power and they’re sure to abuse it. That’s just human nature. Only the best people should be trusted with this much power, but this nation tends to believe that only the most law enforcement will do. Consequently, our hiring practices — not to mention our disciplinary practices — are woefully deficient.

Knowing the harms perpetrated on adults by bad cops, it’s amazing we still let cops anywhere near minors. But not only do we allow this to happen, we encourage it by turning cops into gun-toting hall monitors and allowing cops to oversee minors while prepping them to become the next wave of law enforcement. If officers are comfortable abusing the rights of adults, they won’t even think twice about targeting minors.

That background brings up to this: the West Virginia State Police is likely not going to be allowed to host minors under its roof for the foreseeable future.

Wheeling West Virginia Attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a notice of legal action to Interim WVSP Superintendent Colonel Jack Chambers and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on April 21 saying 42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.

The minors attended Junior Trooper Academy.

According to a letter sent by Cpl. Joseph Comer, a member of the WV State Police, to state lawmakers, Governor Jim Justice, and the office of the Attorney General on February 16, a hidden camera or cameras were placed and operated inside the female locker room at the State Police Academy. Toriseva says her clients and other female Junior Trooper program attendees accessed and used the female locker room at the Academy during the time the anonymous letter states the cameras were in use.

If the allegations are true, catching a glimpse of minors was probably just a side benefit for whoever installed the camera(s). But the existence of these cameras does show one thing: female troopers can never expect to be treated equitably by the State Police. Discovery during the threatened lawsuits may reveal when they were originally installed. But the facts on the record indicate there’s only one reason the WVSP camera operator (or operators) is no longer peeping minors who made the mistake of assuming being a State Trooper was an honorable profession.

Toriseva also says the taping of the females in the Academy did not end until 2020, the same time the Junior Trooper Program was discontinued in 2020.

Well, I take back my previous assertion. Given the specifics of this timing, it appears spying on undressed minors was the point. Catching the other female recruits was just the icing on the pedophilic cake.

The lawsuit threat — along with WTRF’s ongoing investigation — has managed to displace the person at the top of the State Police organizational chart. Superintendent Jan Cahill resigned earlier this year as allegations began to surface. He has been replaced by Jack Chambers, who the state governor (Jim Justice) rather optimistically believes will actually get to the bottom of this and (even more unbelievably) hold whoever’s responsible accountable for their actions.

Here’s why there won’t be much accountability, at least as far as internal action by the State Police. The camera was discovered by other troopers… who immediately took steps to pretend it never happened.

 Justice says other troopers who later found the USB flash drive with the video on it, allegedly “threw it on the floor and stomped on it,” destroying the evidence.

These troopers chose to protect their own (well, not the female members of their own), rather than ensure the evidence could be used to punish and/or prosecute the person(s) involved in installing the camera. This action also suggests the stompers may have partaken of the illicit recordings and tried to erase their footprints from the virtual crime scene by applying their footprints to the thumb drive.

And despite the multiple lawsuits (some have already been filed with the assistance of another law firm), the governor still wants everyone to believe this is a good law enforcement agency. In the same breath as his discussion of the destruction of evidence, Governor (lol) Justice defends the entity housing the people who abused the trust of their own recruits while spying on minors.

”We don’t need to turn our back on the whole because the bad actors are the few. We need to do our job to develop a real confidence that the people are satisfied that we did our job. But we don’t ever need to forget who brought us to the dance too and I say that in slang, but we owe a lot of gratitude to our state police,” Governor Justice told 7News.

Um. Gratitude for what? Ruining their own reputation? Abusing the trust of minors and female cadets? Destroying evidence of their crimes? The money these actions are going to cost taxpayers, both in terms of defending terrible troopers from these lawsuits and the inevitable settlements? Which part are state residents supposed to feel grateful for?

I don’t expect a state official to roundly condemn an entire agency, but Governor Justice should have least had the sense to not couch his criticism with a WVSP glow-up. These people are angry. And stroking the ego of the most powerful law enforcement agency in the state isn’t going to mollify anyone who was wronged. If anything, it’s going to ensure residents believe the governor might find some way to protect the State Police from the consequences of their action. That’s not going to help rebuild trust. It’s only going to let residents know who the governor is actually willing to stand up for. And it’s not the people he represents.

Filed Under: jack chambers, jim justice, junior trooper academy, patrick morrisey, police academy, sexual assault, teresa toriseva, west virginia, west virginia state police, wvsp