Perv Alert: La Plata County Jail Officer Sued for Watching Strip Search Videos

Late last month, a former La Plata County jail commander was charged with 117 counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification after the Colorado Bureau of Investigation discovered Edward Aber had accessed videos of 117 female inmates being strip-searched, watching the videos multiple times between 2019 and early 2024.

Now, three of the victims whose strip searches Aber is accused of accessing on the digital evidence management system evidence.com (an Axon Enterprise product) have filed a class action suit against Aber, La Plata County, La Plata County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Sean Smith.

Aber resigned from his position in July 2024 while being investigated for allegations of making sexual contact with female inmates and harassing female employees, but no charges were filed in that investigation.

According to the August 13 lawsuit, Aber viewed the videos repeatedly from different locations, including his home, hotel rooms while traveling and other locations outside of La Plata County. The videos showed full frontal nudity and close-up views of female inmates' breasts, buttocks and genitals during mandatory strip searches, the lawsuit says.

"The scope and systemic nature of Defendant Aber's conduct is staggering," a portion of the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, reads. "The evidence shows that Defendant Aber would often view multiple strip search videos of different female inmates in single sessions, frequently late at night on in [sic] the early morning hours, demonstrating the purely prurient nature of his conduct."

Aber accessed the evidence management system 3,166 times over the four-plus-year span, according to the lawsuit; the victims' lawyers — civil rights attorneys Kevin Mehr, Tyler Jolly and Jason Kosloski — say the vast majority of those logins were aimed at accessing strip search videos. The plaintiffs' attorneys acuse Aber's bosses at La Plata County and the sheriff's office, including Sheriff Smith, of failing their duties to oversee Aber, who they allege has a known history of sexual impropriety and harassment.

"To say this is absolutely disgusting isn't nearly strong enough," attorney Kosloski wrote in a statement announcing the class action suit. "The fact that Aber not only victimized these women for years, violating their most fundamental rights as human beings, but that the county, the Board of Commissioners, and the sheriff let him do it should shock and frighten all of us."

Aber was officially charged with one count of first-degree official misconduct and 117 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification on July 23. He had a court date scheduled for this week, but his name is not currently on the docket.

The La Plata County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.