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Earlier this year, Joseph Comer, a member of the West Virginia State Police, sent a five-page anonymous letter to multiple state lawmakers, including the Governor, Jim Justice, and the attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, alleging corruption within the department.
Trigger Warning: This article contains details regarding s*xual assault. Reader discretion is advised
The letter contained multiple damaging claims, including alleged hidden cameras in women’s locker rooms in the department, casino thefts, cover-ups, abductions, druggings, and s*xual assault.
At the time, Joseph Comer, who was a Corporal Police at the department, did not reveal his identity, fearing retaliation. The whistle-blower has since come forward, stating he couldn’t be complicit in the misconduct within the department.
In the ensuing months, the letter sparked a slew of investigations against the department, which prompted the governor to comment, “The more we dug, the worse it stunk,” in March. Justice then reportedly handed the investigation over to homeland security, as well as the interim superintendent of the West Virginia state police, Jack Chambers, to launch an investigation into the wrongdoings.
Shortly after, Wheeling West Virginia Attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a notice of legal action to Colonel Jack Chambers and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, stating two retired West Virginia State Police uniformed employees and a civilian plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police.
The lawsuit stemmed from Cpl. Joseph Comer’s claim in the letter that at least one alleged hidden camera was placed in the women’s locker room at the West Virginia state police academy.
Toriseva's legal notice stated that the women used the women’s locker room throughout their careers and after their retirements and intended to sue the department over the exploitation.
On June 16, 2023, Toriseva revealed that her law office had gone from representing three women to 67, including minors between the ages of 14 and 17, from the department’s female Junior Trooper program.
The victims allegedly accessed and used the female locker room at the Academy during the time the Comer’s letter states the cameras were in use. The department’s female Junior Trooper program was launched in 1994.
Toriseva noted that the taping of the women only ended in 2020 after the Junior Trooper Program was discontinued. Toriseca added that all 67 women will be “filing claims against the West Virginia State Police for creating a toxic and hostile environment.” The letter read:
“During their time at the academy and while under the supervision of West Virginia State Police employees, several of these women were subjected to varying levels of physical and emotional abuse and were most likely videotaped on cameras now known to have been hidden on your premises.”
However, in March, the governor said that the employee behind the hidden camera had died. The camera was reportedly found by three troopers who later found a thumb drive. Upon discovering its contents, the trooper allegedly destroyed the files.
West Virginia State Police Whistleblower Joseph Comer's letter reveals disturbing allegations against a trooper
In addition to the disturbing claims involving a hidden camera, horrifying allegations of s*xual assault have also enveloped the West Virginia state police, stemming from the whistleblower Comer’s letter. In May, two women filed lawsuits against the department accusing trooper Michael Miller of drugging, kidnapping, and r*pe.
The lawsuit said that the incident happened in Logan, West Virginia, in December 2021, when Miller encountered the victim and flashed his badge around at the American Legion Post 19 Club. The lawsuit alleged that the victim recalled feeling like she was about to pass out and then woke up the next day covered in blood, urine, and feces.
The victim was allegedly brutally r*ped by Miller. CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital also confirmed the woman was victimized and reported the incident to the FBI.
However, the lawsuit claimed that West Virginia State Police and the Logan County Sheriff’s Office did not “appropriately investigate Trooper Miller,” who later reached out to the victim on Facebook and threatened her life.
A lawsuit by another victim stated that Miller and two other people abducted, drugged, and r*ped her in 2021. They then silenced her by threatening her life stating Miller was a trooper.
The woman tried to report the alleged incident to a friend, who was a sheriff’s deputy in Logan County. However, the lawsuit cited by WOWK-TV stated:
“The information she got back from the Logan county deputy was … ‘Do not screw with the brotherhood.”
Whistleblower Joseph Comer was arrested after sending the damaging letter against West Virginia State Police
Shortly after whistleblower Joseph Comer came forward as the author of the letter that detailed allegations against the West Virginia State Police, he was arrested for domestic battery and felony strangulation.
On February 23, a day before Joseph Comer was scheduled to have a grievance hearing, over his concerns with the West Virginia state police, he was accused of strangling a woman on December 2022, during a scheduled child custody exchange.
According to the criminal complaint cited by WOWK-TV Joseph Comer, who was placed on administrative leave, left bruises on the woman’s neck and also struck the woman during an argument. However, his lawyer has said that the criminal complaint was in retaliation for his client’s letter alleging corruption in the department.
WCHS-TV has since reported on a series of internal emails among the West Virginia police department’s elevated members strategizing Joseph Comer’s arrest.
