CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County Sheriff’s Deputy says she was one of the victims of the hidden camera in the women’ locker room at the West Virginia State Police Academy.
Ashley Keadle filed her civil lawsuit February 6 in Kanawha Circuit Court against the West Virginia State Police.
According to the complaint, Keadle began working for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department in October 2012. She says she attended the Police Academy from March 2013 to July 2013. She worked in Boone County until 2016, and she says she often attended courses and training – even teaching courses – at the academy.
“From July 2013 until September 2016, the plaintiff worked out at the gym and weight room at the West Virginia State Police Academy fairly regularly,” the complaint states. “Whenever the plaintiff worked out … she changed her clothes and showered in the women’s locker room.”
In September 2016, Keadle began working for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department, which has its own gym and weight room.
The complaint details the story of the camera that was secretly placed in the women’s locker room by a supervisor. It was aimed at the showers, the complaint states.
“The camera secretly set up inside the women’s locker room … secretly filmed women, without their permission or consent … changing their clothes and showering,” the complaint states, adding it would have filmed Keadle from 2013 to 2016.
“At least one thumb drive containing video footage of women being secretly recorded inside the women’s locker room at the West Virginia State Police Academy was viewed by at least three different male members of the West Virginia State Police. The thumb drive … was destroyed by members of the West Virginia State Police, including at least one supervisor.”
By 2020, former State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill knew of the recording, the thumb drive and its destruction, according to the complaint, which also says the State Police failed to notify potential victims, failed to discipline employees for destroying the thumb drive or any employees for being involved in the secret recordings.
Keadle says she became aware of the hidden camera in February 2023.
Last year when news of the hidden camera came to the public’s attention, Gov. Jim Justice said the video recordings in the women’s locker room were made in 2015 by a now-deceased State Trooper and the destruction of a hard drive that included some of those recordings by three other State Troopers happened in 2020.
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.”
Cahill also confirmed last year that “the drive with the footage was discovered and ordered destroyed with no investigation.” He also said he was “troubled it was destroyed.”
Keadle accuses the State Police of invasion of privacy, intentional spoliation of evidence, sexual harassment, gender harassment, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligent hiring, negligent promotion, negligent retention and negligent training.
She seeks compensatory damages for emotional distress, indignity, embarrassment, humiliation, annoyance and inconvenience. She also seeks pre-judgment interest, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
A few women previously filed civil lawsuits related to the hidden camera, and dozens more are expected to follow soon.
Keadle is being represented by Mark A. Atkinson and John-Mark Atkinson of Atkinson & Frampton in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-123