CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A class action lawsuit against the West Virginia State Police over hidden cameras in the women’s locker room at the State Police Academy has been settled.
Kanawha County Judge Kenneth Ballard gave final approval to the $9.1 million settlement on Wednesday. Judge Ballard ordered that amount of money to be wired to the qualified settlement fund. The award will be divided among members of the qualifying class based on their level of potential exposure to the recording devices. The settlement was first reported Wednesday by the WV Record.
The victims, the class members, include female basic trainees and students, female teachers who were not State Police employees, female cadets, female junior cadets and other women who used the academy’s locker room or bathroom facilities between Jan. 1, 2015, and March 20, 2023, and were exposed to a hidden camera.
The incident was first brought to light when an anonymous letter detailing the incident was penned to then Gov. Jim Justice and an investigation was launched. Lawsuits soon followed. Former State Police Former Cpl. Joseph Comer later acknowledged he was behind the letter. He now has a lawsuit pending against the State Police alleging retaliation for his reporting the matter.
Comer was in court last week as reported by MetroNews.
Ballard’s ruling in the class action suit also included non-monetary relief which required the State Police to take measures to increase security and insure it never happened again. Ballard also issued a ruling in September 2025 which stated the $1 million limit on damages covered by the National Union Fire Insurance Company was per victim and not a $1 million dollar aggregate on the whole incident. The Supreme Court rejected the insurance carrier’s appeal to Ballard’s ruling.