CHARLESTON — The number of women intending to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police continues to grow.
On April 21, attorney Teresa Toriseva sent another Notice of Forthcoming Legal Action to Interim WVSP Superintendent Colonel Jack Chambers and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on behalf of 42 women who attended or visited the Police Academy since 1994. Ten of them were minors at the time and attended the Junior Trooper Academy.
All of these woman may have been filmed while using the female locker room at the facility in Institute.
Toriseva
“Our ongoing investigation shows rampant sexual misconduct, including hidden videotaping, toward female cadets and others, while they attended the Academy,” Toriseva told The West Virginia Record. “Much of the conduct is through witness provided evidence.”
According to the mailed notice, several of these women were subjected to varying levels of physical and emotional abuse and were most likely videotaped with hidden cameras in the locker room.
“All of these women were victims of a civil conspiracy perpetrated by instructors, staff and leadership at the West Virginia State Police Academy,” the letter states. “Accordingly, these women will bring suit seeking all available damages under the law.”
Toriseva said because the West Virginia State Police is the top law enforcement agency in the state, it has the highest duty and responsibility to protect all West Virginians and to preserve evidence. All police officers in West Virginia must have attended training at the academy to be certified.
On March 20, Cahill resigned from his position and Justice named Chambers the interim superintendent.
The State Police has been the subject of criticism and investigation in recent weeks following an anonymous letter making monetary and sexual allegations about the agency and troopers.
In the complaints filed last month, the plaintiffs alleged they attended the WVSP training academy and were secretly and intentionally recorded by a hidden camera or cameras.
Gov. Jim Justice has said the video recordings in the women’s locker room were made in 2015 by a now-deceased trooper and the 2020 destruction of a hard drive that included some of those recordings by three other state troopers.
Justice said the troopers discovered the thumb drive containing the video and that one of them “jerked the thumb drive out, threw it on the floor and started stomping on it.”
Former WVSP Superintendent Jan Cahill also confirmed that “the drive with the footage was discovered and ordered destroyed with no investigation.” He also said he was “troubled it was destroyed.”
“With the destruction of the video files by the State Police, many of these women will be forced to live without knowing who saw them recorded on secret video cameras,” Toriseva told The Record. “The only result for these women can be full disclosure of all the facts and acknowledgement of the misconduct by the State Police.
“We continue to call for an independent, federal investigation into the West Virginia State Police and treatment of women at the academy.”
Toriseva also is representing three other current and former female Troopers and three other minors who attended the Junior Trooper Program. All of them already have filed separate notices of intent to sue.
Four other women already have filed suit in Kanawha Circuit Court by attorneys Troy Giatras and Matthew Stonestreet of The Giatras Law Firm in Charleston and Ronald N. Walters Jr. of Walters Law Office in Charleston.
Also, attorney David Moye sent a letter to Morrisey and Cahill on behalf of Cpl. Joseph Comer, who was arrested in February on charges of felony strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery in incidents involving a female state trooper.
Comer was arrested about a week after the anonymous letter was sent to lawmakers and state government officials. Moye and Comer since have said Comer is the one who sent the anonymous letter.
On April 11, Moye and attorney Scott Summers also sent a Notice of Intent to Bring Suit for five women regarding the hidden cameras.
The impending plaintiffs accuse the defendants of spoliation of evidence, invasion of privacy, breach of confidentiality, violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act based on gender, violations of the state Constitution for deprivation of rights, privileges and immunities, negligent supervision, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, violations of the West Virginia Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act and negligence.
The women say they have suffered anxiety, humiliation, annoyance, inconvenience, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, pain, suffering, mental anguish, loss of ability to enjoy life and other damages.