DENVER (AP) — Three girls who have been among the many greater than 100 inmates whose strip search movies have been allegedly watched repeatedly by a Colorado jail’s former commander are suing him and authorities businesses, saying they did not preserve tabs on who was accessing the pictures and why.
The proposed federal class motion lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that La Plata County and its sheriff’s workplace knew that Edward Aber had a historical past of being accused of sexual impropriety or harassment when he was employed and failed to position controls on entry to strip search footage, together with monitoring who was accessing it.
Aber is already being criminally prosecuted after a state investigation discovered that he had watched the strip search movies of at the least 117 feminine inmates over about 5 years, typically viewing them weeks and months after they have been recorded as a part of the jail’s consumption course of. The searches of feminine inmates getting into the county jail are finished by feminine deputies and recorded on their physique cameras to make sure the brand new inmates will not be hiding contraband like medicine on their our bodies.
His lawyer within the legal case, Barrie Newberger King, was touring and didn’t instantly return emails or a voice message left at her workplace, which is closed this week. A phone message left at a quantity listed for Aber was not instantly returned.
Interim Deputy County Supervisor Megan Downing mentioned the county doesn’t touch upon lively litigation.
One other lawsuit involving the jail was filed final month towards the county commissioners, the sheriff and others by the mother and father of an inmate who died there in 2023 after they are saying the jail’s nurses and sheriff’s deputies ignored his cries for assist over about 15 hours.
Aber was positioned on paid go away in July 2024 whereas he was investigated for “alleged sexual conduct” with feminine inmates and sexual harassment of sheriff’s workplace staff, in keeping with an arrest warrant affidavit ready by an agent from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation within the video case. The earlier investigation didn’t end in any legal costs being filed towards Aber, who resigned in July 2024, however prompted a assessment of his pc use, the doc mentioned.
Between February 2019 and July 2024, investigators discovered that Aber had logged in to entry physique digital camera footage over 3,000 occasions, principally to look at footage labeled as strip searches, with none obvious authentic purpose, in keeping with the arrest affidavit. The movies have been typically watched from house and motels, typically late at evening or early within the morning, it mentioned.
Aber was charged final month with one depend of first diploma official misconduct as nicely 117 counts of invasion of privateness for sexual gratification, all misdemeanors, for alleging watching the movies of feminine inmates, together with the three girls who filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit additionally seeks to incorporate some other lady whose movies have been allegedly seen by Aber.
The doc famous that some movies Aber had accessed have been purged from the system, so there could possibly be extra girls whose movies he watched past the movies of the 117 girls that remained.
The lawsuit accuses Aber and the others of violating the ladies’s constitutional rights, together with their rights to privateness and to be protected towards unreasonable searches.
One in every of their attorneys, Kevin Mehr, acknowledged that strip searches are wanted in jails. However he mentioned there could possibly be some limits on why movies of such intrusive moments will be seen, equivalent to if contraband was discovered or if an inmate complains of being mistreated, he mentioned. In any other case, belief within the legal justice system will be eroded, he mentioned.
“Seeing this occur and pondering this might occur some place else actually deteriorates the entire belief within the system,” Mehr mentioned.
