| Comprehensive set of actions announced to restore trust and confidence in the West Virginia State Police |
Charleston, WV -West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice on Monday ordered a sweeping investigation of the State Police after he accepted the resignation of the agency’s superintendent and revealed allegations of
wrongdoing.
Justice said he has appointed Jack Chambers, the deputy director of the Capitol police, as
interim superintendent to replace superintendent Jan Cahill, who had served under Justice
since the governor took office in 2017. Justice said Chambers will conduct “an all-out
investigation” to replace one that started last month under Cahill and was nearing its
completion.
One focus of the investigation will be an allegation that a state police employee hid a video
camera in the women’s locker room at a State Police facility in Kanawha County.
Justice did not specify when it occurred but indicated it was several years ago, perhaps before
Cahill took over, and that the employee involved later died of an apparent heart attack while
jogging.
Justice said three troopers eventually found a thumb drive “and from that they found the video.”
At least one of the troopers “jerked the thumb drive out, threw it to the floor and started
stomping on it.
A separate incident that will be investigated involved money allegedly stolen by a trooper from a
man at a casino in the Charleston suburb of Nitro. The governor also said the investigation will
look into an unspecified “loss of life” on Interstate 81 in the Eastern Panhandle.
In the casino incident, a man was playing a video machine with a trooper close by, Justice said.
As the man got up to go to the restroom, an envelope with him fell out of his seat. The trooper
picked up the envelope and kept the money inside.
The governor said instead of the State Police conducting an immediate investigation into the
incident, “we didn’t do that.” The governor did not specify whether the trooper was disciplined
and said the incident will be part of Chambers’ investigation.
Justice did not provide details of the I-81 incident, including when it occurred. The governor said
he has seen video of the incident and it is “very, very concerning.” An investigation is ongoing,
“and Jack Chambers has to get into this as well,” Justice said.
Chambers served a combined 26 years with the Capitol police and State Police. The Capitol
police, also known as the Division of Protective Services, was established in 1999 to provide
security at the state Capitol Complex in Charleston and other state facilities.
Justice said he met with Cahill at the superintendent’s request Monday morning at the
governor’s residence, when Cahill submitted his resignation.
Before becoming superintendent, Cahill served as the sheriff in Greenbrier County, where the
governor has a home and owns the posh Greenbrier resort. Before that, Cahill spent 23 years
with the State Police in a variety of roles. He started as a field trooper in 1989 and retired as
troop commander captain in Beckley in 2012, the year he was elected to the first of two terms
as sheriff.
