Police Coverups, Conspiracies, and Cost to Taxpayers

West Virginia State Police

There is a LOT to unpack here. Much of the alleged behavior is in the top brass of the state police, including head of Professional Standards/Internal affairs.

Affairs.
Lying.
Falsification of records/reports.
Hidden camera in the women's locker room (Which also caught minors...)
Overtime theft.
Sexual assault.
Policy exemptions for the higher ranks.
Conspiracy
Ghost accounts for personal use slush funds.
You name it, it's happening


This started off with copies of a whistleblower's letter sent to a lot of important people, the AG, 9 senators, and a handful of delegate's. This is several months after sending it the Office of the Governor and the WB Office of special investigations. This is pretty smart as that many people can't play dumb and ignore it. The whistleblower knows he will be retaliated against by the State Police (foreshadowing...), but I commend him for it.




I'll have to give this out in a few posts because there's so much here. I'll throw this out there to spice it up a bit, the alleged whistle blower, a State Trooper was locked up the day he was set to testify against... State Troopers. Yep. He was set to testify about corruption within the state police. The top brass of the state police were subpoenaed to be there. The afternoon before the hearing, an attorney for the state police filed a motion to prevent the top brass from having to testify and be subjected to questioning.


So, the state police are charging him for something that allegedly happened 2 months prior. The victim is another State Trooper. Why, on god's green earth, was this not taken care of before this? You would think they would want to protect one of their own (Its what they do.. right? ). Why let this guy continue to walk around if there is a credible case that he feloniously assaulted one of your Troopers?


“The information that I have now received shows that this thread of people was doing anything and everything that they could to try to get something against Cpl. Comer in order to destroy his reputation, destroy his career, to stop him from testifying at that Level Four hearing,” Moye said.

[...]

Findley responded at 11:39 p.m., "Everyone needs to be extremely cautious when they encounter him. It won't be the Joey they are accustomed to. I can only imagine his state of mind."

“It appears that they were trying to set Cpl. Comer up to possibly get shot,” Moye said. Sgt. Keefer, the one they sent to pick him up at nearly midnight, was not told about the DVP and was not told about the warrants. But he was told to tell Cpl. Comer to arm himself with his service revolver and that he was to transport him at midnight to the Parkersburg detachment. So why, the question arises, why would they tell him to arm himself when they are going to arrest him for a supposed violent felony 30 minutes later?”

In email messages in the early morning of Feb.24, the day of the hearing and the day Comer turned himself in, Huddleston wrote Findley, "I am thinking we maybe need to start thinking about having something in place tomorrow when/if he shows up" [For the hearing about corruption]







(The day before the hearing)


Emails between WVSP brass detail attempts to arrest whistleblower behind anonymous letter


Again, if he did feloniously assault another trooper 2 months ago, why wait for the day before the hearing to go after him?

 

Governor orders State Police search amid alarming allegations from trooper's arrest | WCHS (wchstv.com)

"At the direction of Governor Jim Justice, the Department of Homeland Security has been directed to investigate multiple allegations of potential improper or alleged criminal actions occurring within the administration of the West Virginia State Police," Abraham wrote

The scope of the data includes daily activity logs, both employee and detachment duty logs, emails and text messages from Monday, Feb. 13, 2023, through Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, for the following members of the agency:

• Col. Jan Cahill
• Lt. Col. David Nelson
• Maj. James Findley
• Maj. Shallon Oglesby
• Capt. Roy Moss
• First Sgt. Oakey Starsick
• First Sgt. William Huddleston
• Sgt. Chris Snodgrass
• Sgt. Robert Richardson
• Sgt. Brandon Meeks
• Sgt. Brent Kieffer
• Sgt. Chad Whetzel
• Sgt. Craig Weaver

"This sergeant is now strongly questioning the decision by the WVSP senior staff in not informing the sole member they sent to locate Corporal Comer, and not informing this sergeant of the felony and misdemeanor warrants, that were most assuredly in effect at the time of the search," the entry stated. "This sergeant has since learned that the WVSP senior staff has taken the position that they were afraid that Corporal Comer was a 'threat' that needed immediate attention, but failed to inform the very member that they ordered to 'bring him in.'"

West Virginia State Police headquarters searched amid conduct investigation (wboy.com)

The most serious allegations include sexual assaults, thefts, and damage to state-owned property at the state police academy. Other accusations include a hidden camera in the women’s locker room, misuse of taxpayer funds, and some troopers billing for overtime they did not work.

 

Gross. And what will this cost the taxpayers of an already dirt poor state? A hidden camera in the women's locker room at the State Police HQ.

42 more women – including 10 minors – intend to sue State Police over hidden cameras | West Virginia Record (wvrecord.com)

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.

 

West Virginia Police now have allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct (wvnstv.com)

“It is an environment at the state police academy that’s downright hostile to women.”

"We’re finding and getting reports of sexual misconduct, including reports of improper sexual relationships with instructors. We’re getting reports of physical assaults."

“Evidence of a cover-up, of fraud, not letting this become public, so to speak to oversimplify it and that is a problem too.”

So many of the things that we’re uncovering are stories that are being heard for the first time because there was a fear of reporting and there was also a fear of losing your entire career if you reported.” (That's a nice culture you have there)

-TERESA TORISEVA, TRIAL LAWYER

 

The Civil Rights Lawyer. I'm subbed to his channel. I like it. He's released at least 3 so far that I know of. I watched his first one the day it came out. More than likely, the attention he drew to it got this case rolling after he was forwarded copies of the letters sent to the lawmakers.

For those who like to hear a lawyers take on it (in chronological order):

 

I guess "everywhere" in the state police's case includes the women's locker room....

 

Isn't that where a lot of the footage came from of that handful of Memphis police officers beating that man to death?

 

@Orange_and_Bluke

What's funny about this post?

 

I am familar. It's pretty childish. Just curious of the response.

 

Obsessed? It's, IMO, an important topic posted in the appropriate forum.

And rabbit hole? Q-anon is a rabbit hole. The Governor of a state having electronics and records siezed of the state's top law enforcement agency is not. Doesn't matter how they behave or what laws they break, as long as they get them drug dealers, right?

I'm surprised you didn't mark the one about a hidden camera in the women's locker room possibly recording minors as funny.