CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County circuit judge will soon decide whether or not a retaliation case filed against the West Virginia State Police will move forward.
Judge Kenneth Ballard heard arguments Thursday in Joseph Comer’s case against the WVSP and others in which he claims he was retaliated against for blowing the whistle on a hidden camera found in the State Academy’s women’s locker room.
Comer alleges he was demoted, served with custody documents, wrongfully accused of domestic violence, and later fired after investigating the camera and then sending anonymous letters to state government officials with his findings.
In a previous hearing, Ballard ordered the plaintiff to amend his complaint before he heard any motions, including one by the defendants to dismiss the case.
“There is no immunity for those allegations that we’ve brought, so I think the defendants’ motions to dismiss must be denied for that reason,” Comer’s attorney Richard Holtzapfel said.
In addition to WVSP, former Superintendent Jan Cahill, 1st Lt. James T. Findlay Jr., and former 1st Sgt. Kenneth William Huddleston are named as defendants. Huddleston filed an arrest warrant for Comer for an alleged domestic violence incident involving Vicky Marra, a former trooper with whom Comer was in a relationship and the mother of his child.
Comer pleaded no contest to three charges in Ritchie County in 2023 and asserts the allegations were part of a conspiracy against him.
“She signed an affidavit. She testified at a domestic violence hearing. What is set forth in the criminal complaint sets forth, I believe, probable cause for the actions that Huddleston took,” Huddleston’s attorney Amy Brinkos said Thursday.
Plaintiff’s attorney David Moye asserts that even with little discovery completed in the case, his client has evidence to the contrary. He stated there are emails confirming Huddleston conspired against Comer.
“We have email threads given to us by Homeland Security at that time where they went back in and got it off of their computers that showed that he was in the line of conspiracy. Sgt. Huddleston was the one who went and got the criminal complaint knowing that that was fabricated,” Moye said.
Moye also alleged Huddleston drafted the domestic violence complaint himself and was aware that a photo used in a probable cause hearing was fabricated.
Attorneys for Cahill and Findlay either joined in or filed additional motions to dismiss the case. Further, Brinkos questioned whether or not Comer’s actions are protected under West Virginia’s whistleblower law.
“I don’t even know that he is a whistleblower. The language in the complaint says that he participated in a letter, and then he also says someone forged his name and sent a letter, so I don’t even know that the complaint on its face meets the standard for a whistleblowing complaint,” she said.
Ballard stated he would rule on the pending motions in the near future.
The hidden camera allegations emerged in 2023 following two letters sent to then-Gov. Jim Justice’s office. A separate lawsuit alleges that the now-deceased 1st Sgt. Joseph Portaro, identified as the individual who placed the camera, conspired with other WVSP members to install it.
Additional claims accuse various state police officials of lying, deception, and destroying evidence. A separate lawsuit filed by women recorded using the hidden camera is also before Ballard at this time.