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State Police Superintendent Resigns Amid Investigations Into Women's Rights Violations, Stealing, More - West Virginia Public Broadcasting : West Virginia Public Broadcasting

  
Via:  sandy-2021492  •  last year  •  3 comments

By:   Randy Yohe (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

State Police Superintendent Resigns Amid Investigations Into Women's Rights Violations, Stealing, More  - West Virginia Public Broadcasting : West Virginia Public Broadcasting
An investigation found evidence of videotaping a State Police women's locker room, stealing money at a casino and a concerning I-81 crash investigation.

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In a video press conference Monday afternoon, Gov. Jim Justice announced he accepted the resignation of State Police Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill early that morning.

An investigation found evidence of videotaping a State Police women's locker room, stealing money at a casino and a concerning I-81 crash investigation.

Justice said, "The more we dug, the more it stunk, you can't make this stuff up."

A Department of Homeland Security probe began with an anonymous letter listing allegations of State Police wrongdoing.

"When you absolutely think that a women's locker room ought to be an absolute safe place, we've got a situation, whether it was in 2014 or 2016, whether it was before Jan (Col. Jan Cahill), before the governor or whatever it may be, our State Police did stuff that was really bad," Justice said. "We put a video camera in the women's locker room. To me, it is absolutely intolerant, not to be tolerated in any way."

Justice said the invasion of women's privacy got even worse regarding destruction of evidence, after the unnamed individual who planted the camera died of a heart attack.

"There were three troopers that found a thumb drive and from that they found the video," Justice said. "Then from what I understand, one, if not all, immediately jerked a thumb drive out and threw it on the floor and started stomping on it. Now we've got law enforcement officers destroying evidence."

Justice said the investigation also found videotape evidence showing a State Police trooper committing theft at the Mardi Gras casino in Cross Lanes.

"There was a man playing one of the video machines," Justice said. "There was a state trooper close by. In some way, the man got up and an envelope that he had fell out in the seat. I think he went on to the restroom. There's no way to look at this other than just this, the trooper picked it up and took the money. Basically, that money was stolen. And then as far as doing a quick investigation and getting right on to what we should get onto, we didn't do that."

Justice said a third investigation is still underway involving State Police trooper involvement in a fatal accident on Interstate 81.

"We've had an individual loss of life on I-81," Justice said, "I've seen the video. The video is very, very concerning. The investigation is ongoing at this time."

Cahill, the former Greenbrier County Sheriff, had been State Police Superintendent since the Justice administration took office in 2017. Justice said Cahill asked around midnight Sunday to talk. They met in Justice's driveway on Monday morning.

"The first thing I told Jan was there is no pathway here," Justice said. "There is no pathway that absolutely you can remain as the colonel of the State Police in the state of West Virginia."

Justice said he has appointed Capitol Police Lt. Col. Jack Chambers as interim State Police Superintendent and said Chambers will work with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy to further investigate the locker room and casino incidents.

"Jack Chambers is a man of honor," Justice said. "He'll do the right things and we entrust upon him to absolutely do any level of rightness, clean up, whatever it may be, we will entrust upon him to do just that. As I promised you, it's got to go further than that, and here's where there are many areas of allegations and Jack Chambers will absolutely address those allegations."

The governor's Chief of Staff, Brian Abraham, said other allegations regarding the State Police are still under investigation. Justice said federal investigators are already looking at these incidents and that Chambers will work with Secretary Sandy and the governor's office to restore trust and integrity to the West Virginia State Police.



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sandy-2021492
Professor Expert
1  seeder  sandy-2021492    last year
An investigation found evidence of videotaping a State Police women's locker room, stealing money at a casino and a concerning I-81 crash investigation. Justice said, "The more we dug, the more it stunk, you can't make this stuff up."

There's another part of the story not mentioned here, but mentioned in other articles.  Recently, a state trooper turned himself in to the Jackson County, WV sheriff's office.  He was wanted on charges of domestic abuse, including strangulation.  He also said he was aware of the situations mentioned in the article, and was a target due to that knowledge.

Comer's arrest comes on the the heels   of an Eyewitness News report   last week that revealed a large-scale investigation is being conducted by the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security into allegations of wrongdoing by members of the State Police.

The allegations were first raised in an anonymous letter written to Eyewitness News Lead Investigative Reporter Kennie Bass that ranged from misuse of federal and state dollars, using ghost accounts tapping public money for secret unauthorized personal purchases, high-level staffers engaging in inappropriate behavior in state offices and vehicles and illegal overtime practices resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraudulent payments...

In a telephone call late Friday, Comer's attorney, David Moye, had scathing comments about his client's arrest. Moye said that senior staff at the State Police believe Comer is the author of the anonymous letter.

Colonel Jan Cahill was up north Wednesday and told several people that he knew who the whistleblower was, and he had a hearing on Friday morning, and he was going to 'take care of him,'" Moye said.

The shit is pretty deep here.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2  Kavika     last year

I wonder if he'll retire at full pay...

 
 
 
evilone
Professor Guide
2.1  evilone  replied to  Kavika @2    last year

We are more likely to see politicians pressure the news agencies to fire the reporters covering the stories than actually fix any issue with LEOs.

 
 

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