After more than three months of hearings, discussions and amendments, a Colorado bill intended to curb sexual abuse and tighten strip search regulations in jails has passed with a 42-22 House vote.
Katie Stewart, D-Durango, who represents House District 59, said the bill – HB26-1123, Preventing Sexual Abuse in Jails – was created, in part, in response to a sexual gratification case involving former La Plata County Jail Cmdr. Edward Aber.
Stewart is an official sponsor of the bill, alongside Sens. Mike Weissman and Judy Amabile and Rep. Javier Mabrey.
Aber is accused of using his evidence.com access to view strip-search videos of at least 117 inmates over 3,000 times for sexual gratification. Aber, who has pleaded not guilty, is expected to stand trial in August.
“What happened in Durango was a very serious abuse of power, and no one should ever be put in that situation again,” Stewart said in a release on the bill’s passage by the Colorado Coalition of Sexual Assault. “It has been an enormous privilege to work with the survivors from La Plata County, whose bravery and advocacy has driven this process.”
HB26-1123 will expand reporting requirements and whistleblower protections for jail staff members, limit strip searches and access to strip-search footage, and ensure inmates are aware of their rights and available resources in sexual abuse cases.
Three alleged victims in the Aber case – Suzanne Garcia, Katrina Lile and Shrell Begay – testified in support of the bill during the legislative process.
Six of the 117 alleged victims – including some who testified – spoke to The Durango Herald about the alleged intrusion in September, saying they felt “sick” and had chills at the thought of having been watched during such vulnerable moments.
“While what happened was devastating, it is encouraging to see something good coming from this bill,” Lile said in the CCASA release. “This must serve as a lesson for all law enforcement that such behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Raven Nyx, a former deputy with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, also testified in support of the bill.
Several Colorado-based sexual assault organizations have stood behind the bill alongside CCASA, including the Durango Sexual Assault Services Organization, the Sexual Violence Prevention Association and the Women’s Foundation of Colorado.
“HB26-1123’s passage honors what survivors and whistleblowers have called for since this case came to light: to prevent this from happening to anyone else,” said Elizabeth Newman, director of public policy at CCASA, in the release.
Amendments were made to the bill before its passage in response to concerns from law enforcement and other legislators about the bill’s language and reach.
Some of those amendments included standardizing and clarifying some definitions; allowing strip searches to be conducted with body-worn cameras, but with requirements in place with regard to adequately tagging the footage as sensitive and notices being given to the person being searched; narrowing video access protections only to strip-search footage, rather than to all jail footage; and stipulations being put in place wherein jail staff members must supply clear, fact-based reasons for conducting a strip-search before doing so.
Stewart read a poem on the House floor just before the bill was passed.
“A bill was born in the lower hall to shield the ones behind the wall, where silence shelters what should not stand, and harm too often goes unmanned,” she said.
She referenced the bill’s many amendments in the poem, saying, “What left the House came back transformed; not weakened, but more carefully formed.”
The bill will now be sent for signature by Gov. Jared Polis.