CHARLESTON – A potential class action lawsuit has been filed related to the hidden camera in the women's locker room and shower facilities at the West Virginia State Police Academy.
Charleston attorneys Marvin Masters and Robert Berthold filed the complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court. The three plaintiffs are identified only by their initials of R.C., E.G. and C.M. In addition to the State Police, the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security is named as a defendant. DHS oversees the State Police.
According to the complaint, the three named plaintiffs were among hundreds of women and children possibly being captured on hidden cameras in the female locker room and shower facilities at the WVSP academy in Institute.
All West Virginia law enforcement officers must attend training at the facility during their career, not just State Police troopers, thus most of the plaintiffs visited the academy at various times for various reasons during their career.
Some civilian officials and administrators who worked for the WVSP and used the facilities also could file, as could women who attended the Junior Trooper academy for aspiring law enforcement officer between the ages of 14 and 17 as minors. That program ended in 2020.
The named plaintiffs say the used the facilities multiple times from January 1, 2015, to February 16, 2023, which is when the existence of the hidden camera became public.
The lawsuit says a trooper identified only as J.P., who is now deceased, installed electronic recording devices in the facilities. It also says J.P. and others maintained the devices. Upon J.P.’s death, troopers identified as R.P. and J.E. discovered a thumb drive or drives with videos of the plaintiffs and others. It says R.P. and J.E. took the drive(s) to Major R.P., who directed them to destroy it.
It says former State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill knew or should have known videos were wrongfully taken of naked females in the facilities and in possession of State Police employees. Previous lawsuits have named Joshua Eldridge, Robert Perry and James Lee as defendants.
After word of the hidden cameras became public, the plaintiffs say the State Police “did not inform the plaintiffs of the videotapes or photographs.
“Defendants concealed the facts and destroyed the evidence related thereto and, by failing to inform the plaintiffs and the class of the acts of installing a hidden camera or cameras in the facilities and then concealing the facts and circumstances, proximately caused plaintiffs and the class further distress and damages,” the complaint states.
“They (the plaintiffs) had no knowledge of the pattern and practice described in this complaint of them being surreptitiously videotaped by officers, agents, servants and employees of the State Police and Homeland Security … They, like other female participants, became emotionally upset and worried about what defendants recorded and what defendants and others did with the recordings of their undressed bodies, and they remain emotionally upset and distressed.”
The complaint accuses the defendants of violating state code by secretly recording the plaintiffs nude, violating the West Virginia Human Rights Act with sexual harassment and gender discrimination, statutory liability, spoliation of evidence, violation of right to privacy, infliction of emotional distress, negligent training and violations of the state constitution.
The plaintiffs seek an order certifying the class, compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. They also seek to have the three named plaintiffs designated as class representatives and to have Masters and Berthold appointed class counsel.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Carrie Webster.
In February, more than 70 additional lawsuits related to the hidden camera were filed. And others previously had been filed.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-326