The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office is facing a class action lawsuit after a former jail commander was charged with watching strip search videos of female inmates for self-gratification.
Attorneys for 30 of those inmates filed the suit in federal court on Wednesday. Former Commander Edward Aber, La Plata County Sheriff Sean Smith, Lt. Jacob Harris, Sgt. Micheal Slade and the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners were named as defendants.
One former inmate said she felt violated and uncomfortable when she found out about Aber’s criminal charges.
“I was kind of shocked, more shocked than I was anything else because I'd always heard that Capt. Aber was a really standup guy,” said the former inmate. CPR News has agreed to identify her by the initial C.B. due to the nature of the accusations against Aber. “I had no idea that he was like that at all.”
C.B. said she had only met Aber three or four times during her 22-month incarceration at the La Plata County Jail for federal drug charges.
In July, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation charged the 62-year-old with 117 counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification. He’s accused of accessing more than a hundred different female inmates’ strip search videos.
Aber is alleged to have viewed the footage multiple times. He’s also facing one count of first-degree official misconduct. All of the charges are Class 1 misdemeanors.
A nerve-wracking and uncomfortable experience
C.B. said she underwent several strip searches during her time in jail, and the inmates would never get any information before they happened.
“They just did them pull us all out of our room, put us in a gym, and then take us two by two because there were never a lot of female officers at the time,” C.B. said. “So, there was either one or two on duty that would do them for us.”
She said when she first got to the jail, she was informed that the first strip search was recorded. The others were not recorded. At least, that’s what she thought. She described the experience as nerve-wracking and scary.
“Just constantly being told that you're doing something or being locked down for some odd reason or another, it was stressful enough in there,” C.B. said. “And then to have the room searches and the body searches so often, it was very uncomfortable for me the whole time I was in there.”
C.B.’s interaction with Aber was brief. But others weren’t.
Aber had worked at the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office for 19 years before resigning in July 2024.
He was promoted to jail commander in 2018 and was granted access to evidence.com, a cloud-based evidence management system developed by Axon. The company also develops law enforcement body-worn cameras.
According to the CBI, Aber accessed more than a hundred different female inmates’ strip search videos between February 2019 and January 2024. He’s alleged to have viewed them multiple times from the jail, hotel rooms in Denver, residential address in Arizona, and other locations, usually late at night or in the early morning hours.
At the time of his resignation, Aber had been on administrative leave. The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office was investigating allegations that Aber made unlawful sexual contact with female inmates and sexual harassment of numerous female employees.
“The jail's deputies uploaded those to an evidence database that was readily accessible and ripe for abuse. This was a policy of the jail,” said Siddhartha Rathod, whose law firm is representing the inmates. “The only reason Commander Aber was able to exact this sort of punishment on these inmates was because he was emboldened, hired and authorized by the sheriff of La Plata County.”
For C.B., the experience left her uncomfortable around cameras and uneasy around authority figures.
“Now, when I'm around places and I notice the camera, I get kind of nervous and who's up there watching. What are they doing and why are they watching me?” C.B. said. “So, I do notice cameras a lot more now than before. I've never really paid attention to them in my life. Now, I'm more aware of it.”
It’s been a year and a half since she’s been at the La Plata County Jail. C.B. is on supervised release with federal probation officers in Durango. She goes to counseling classes and support groups for her mental health.
Rathod and his law firm expect the list of victims to grow and are working with local counsel in Durango.
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment on the suit.
Aber is still listed as certified but not currently employed in the Colorado Peace and Officer Standards and Training (POST), which tracks certification status, employment, complaints and investigations of law enforcement officers in the state.
His next court appearance is Mon. Sept. 8.
