{"id":16910,"date":"2025-08-15T21:46:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T21:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-jail-commander-accused-of-viewing-strip-search-videos-faces-class-action-lawsuit\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:02:08","slug":"former-jail-commander-accused-of-viewing-strip-search-videos-faces-class-action-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-jail-commander-accused-of-viewing-strip-search-videos-faces-class-action-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Former jail commander accused of viewing strip-search videos faces class-action lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Capt.
Capt. Ed Aber, who has 40-plus years of law enforcement experience under his belt, walks through the La Plata County Jail that he supervises. Aber, who suffered with PTSD in the past, now helps other first responders address the issues that can lead to PTSD. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A class-action lawsuit<\/a> has been filed against a former La Plata County Jail commander who is accused of secretly viewing 117 strip-search videos involving female inmates, reportedly accessing the recordings 3,116 times <\/a>in nearly five years.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also names the La Plata County Sheriff\u2019s Office and several employees, including Sheriff Sean Smith.<\/p>\n

Smith and the Sheriff\u2019s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed by Kevin Mehr and Tyler Jolly of Mehr Jolly, PLLC, and Jason Kosloski of Kosloski Law, PLLC, civil rights attorneys from the Front Range.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in jail, you have very little power over your own autonomy and body,\u201d Kosloski told The Durango Herald<\/em><\/a> in July. \u201cThe jail staff who are in charge of you are entrusted with a massive amount of power \u2013 and it sounds like (Aber) took absolute advantage of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Cmdr. Ed Aber faces 117 counts of invasion of privacy and one count of official misconduct \u2013 all misdemeanors. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 13 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on Wednesday, relates to the 42 U.S.C. \u00a7 1983 Civil Rights Act<\/a>, also called the Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights.<\/p>\n

The act allows individuals to pursue lawsuits against state and local officials who have violated individuals\u2019 constitutional rights or federal statutory rights while operating under color of state law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shocks the conscience,\u201d Mehr said in a news release attributed to all three attorneys Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine the most intimate, private and vulnerable moment you can,\u201d Jolly said in the release. \u201cNow imagine (Ed Aber) is there in your bedroom, bathroom or doctor\u2019s office taking pictures and video to watch it later for his own \u2018entertainment.\u2019 That\u2019s what happened here and the people in charge let it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a July 30 news release<\/a>, Kosloski called the allegations against Aber \u201cas shocking as they are heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the person entrusted with security becomes the perpetrator of abuse, the legal system must respond decisively,\u201d Kosloski said in the release. \u201cVictims of abuse at the hands of someone sworn to protect deserve a voice \u2013 and a path to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said monetary compensation is only one aspect of the reparation the women are seeking through the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest thing that all the women that we\u2019ve talked to, and are representing, want, is for there to be real change, so that this can\u2019t happen again,\u201d Kosloski said. \u201cWe are pursuing monetary compensation, but I think it\u2019s important for us to say that for these women, it\u2019s not about the money. There\u2019s really not an amount of money that can make them whole. The pain, the things they have gone through, and the things that they\u2019ve expressed. \u2026 There\u2019s not a dollar value that can be put on that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though only three women were listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit as of Friday, others have reached out to the law firm to share their experiences and seek reparation, Kosloski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t comment on other people that we may represent (going forward), other than the three that we\u2019ve publicly named in the lawsuit, but there\u2019s been an outpouring of women coming forward about this, and we hope that more women continue to come forward,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not just three women: This is a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kosloski encourages anyone who thinks they may be a victim in this case to call the firm at (720) 605-6487.<\/p>\n

Protection, no contact and non-harassment orders were ordered last week for all 117 females.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Judge Richard Schmittel cited Colorado Revised Statutes Title 18-1-1001<\/a> during the Aug. 7 hearing, which prohibits Aber from harassing, intimidating or retaliating against any victim or witness in the case.<\/p>\n

Aber\u2019s attorney, Barrie Newberger King, could not be reached for comment Friday. A voicemail and email notification from Newberger King\u2019s office said Newberger King would be out of the country until Aug. 18, and that communication until then would be \u201csporadic.\u201d<\/p>\n

epond@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County Sheriff\u2019s Office and sheriff also named as defendants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1024,1194,1373,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-la-plata-county-jail","tag-la-plata-county-sheriffs-office","tag-litigation","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21219,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions\/21219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}