Colorado jail’s ex-commander sued over allegedly watching strip search videos of over 100 women
DENVER (AP) – Three women who are among more than 100 prisoners allegedly watched repeatedly by the former commander of a Colorado prison prison, sued for him and the state institutions and said that they could not continue to reach the images and why.
The proposed federal class action case on Wednesday claims that La Plata County and the Sheriff’s office know that Edward Aber was accused of sexual non -compliance or harassment when he is hired, and that he did not put controls for access to lane search images, including the monitoring.
Aber is prosecuted as a criminal investigation that a state investigation has followed lane search videos of at least 117 female prisoners for nearly five years and that it was usually registered as a part of the prison recruitment process. The searches of female prisoners entering the district prison are made by female deputies and are recorded on body cameras to ensure that new prisoners do not hide smuggling like drugs in their bodies.
His lawyer Barrie Newberger King was traveling in the criminal case, and he did not return an e -mails or voice message in his closed office this week. A telephone message left in number one for Aber was not returned immediately.
Temporary District Deputy Director Megan Downing, the district does not comment on the active case, he said.
Another case containing the prison Filed last month District commissioners, sheriffs and others, the prison nurses and the Sheriff MPs ignored the scream for help for about 15 hours after the parents of a prisoner who died there in 2023.
According to a declaration of arrest warrant prepared by an agent of the Colorado Investigation Office in the video case, Aber was investigated for the allegations of female prisoners and sexual harassment of Şerif office employees paid in July 2024. In the document, the previous investigation did not cause any criminal charges against Aber who resigned in July 2024, but led to the review of computer use.
Between February 2019 and July 2024, the researchers found that Aber had a sign to access 3000 times more body camera images to watch images tagged as lane searches, according to the declaration of arrest. Videos were sometimes watched from homes and hotels, usually late at night or early in the morning.
Aber was accused of first -degree official abuse last month, and the number of privacy invasions for sexual satisfaction for claiming that female prisoners were watching videos, including three women who opened the case. The case also aims to include another woman allegedly watched by Aber.
The document may be more women who have watched some of the videos that Aber has accessed from the system, so the videos of the remaining 117 women watch the videos.
The case blames Aber and others of violating the constitutional rights of women, including protection against privacy rights and unreasonable searches.
Kevin Mehr, one of his lawyers, acknowledged that ribbon searches were necessary in prisons. However, he said why the videos of such interventionist moments could be displayed or some limits such as a prisoner complaining about being ill -treatment. Otherwise, confidence in the criminal justice system may be overcome.
Mehr said, “Seeing this is happening and thinking that this may be elsewhere, it really worsen all the trust in the system,” Mehr said.
