Colorado jail’s ex-commander sued over allegedly watching strip search videos of over 100 women

DENVER (AP) — Three women who were among the more than 100 inmates whose strip search videos were allegedly watched repeatedly by a Colorado jail’s former commander are suing him and government agencies, saying they failed to keep tabs on who was accessing the images and why.

The proposed federal class action lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that La Plata County and its sheriff’s office knew that Edward Aber had a history of being accused of sexual impropriety or harassment when he was hired and failed to place controls on access to strip search footage, including monitoring who was accessing it.

Aber is already being criminally prosecuted after a state investigation found that he had watched the strip search videos of at least 117 female inmates over about five years, often viewing them weeks and months after they were recorded as part of the jail’s intake process. The searches of female inmates entering the county jail are done by female deputies and recorded on their body cameras to ensure the new inmates are not hiding contraband like drugs on their bodies.

His lawyer in the criminal case, Barrie Newberger King, was traveling and did not immediately return emails or a voice message left at her office, which is closed this week. A telephone message left at a number listed for Aber was not immediately returned.

Interim Deputy County Manager Megan Downing said the county does not comment on active litigation.

Another lawsuit involving the jail was filed last month against the county commissioners, the sheriff and others by the parents of an inmate who died there in 2023 after they say the jail’s nurses and sheriff’s deputies ignored his cries for help over about 15 hours.

Aber was placed on paid leave in July 2024 while he was investigated for “alleged sexual conduct” with female inmates and sexual harassment of sheriff’s office employees, according to an arrest warrant affidavit prepared by an agent from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in the video case. The previous investigation did not result in any criminal charges being filed against Aber, who resigned in July 2024, but prompted a review of his computer use, the document said.

Between February 2019 and July 2024, investigators found that Aber had logged in to access body camera footage over 3,000 times, mostly to watch footage labeled as strip searches, without any apparent legitimate reason, according to the arrest affidavit. The videos were sometimes watched from home and hotels, often late at night or early in the morning, it said.

Aber was charged last month with one count of first degree official misconduct as well 117 counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, all misdemeanors, for alleging watching the videos of female inmates, including the three women who filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit also seeks to include any other woman whose videos were allegedly viewed by Aber.

The document noted that some videos Aber had accessed were purged from the system, so there could be more women whose videos he watched beyond the videos of the 117 women that remained.

The lawsuit accuses Aber and the others of violating the women’s constitutional rights, including their rights to privacy and to be protected against unreasonable searches.

One of their attorneys, Kevin Mehr, acknowledged that strip searches are needed in jails. But he said there could be some limits on why videos of such intrusive moments can be viewed, such as if contraband was found or if an inmate complains of being mistreated, he said. Otherwise, trust in the criminal justice system can be eroded, he said.

“Seeing this happen and thinking this could happen somewhere else really deteriorates the whole trust in the system,” Mehr said.