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   From: nowomr@protonmail.com   
      
    Mountain State Spotlight explains: What to know about the West Virginia   
   State Police scandal   
      
   The sprawling scandal at the state’s top law enforcement agency has   
   reverberated around West Virginia. As a dizzying number of allegations   
   have emerged, here’s what you need to know.   
      
   Public spats between high-ranking officials. Anonymous letters and lawsuit   
   threats. A cast of characters longer than a blockbuster movie and a   
   laundry list of allegations that seems to grow every day.   
      
   The scandal that has rocked the West Virginia State Police is shocking,   
   complicated and confusing.   
      
   But with more investigations vowed – including a federal probe and   
   numerous civil lawsuits – it’s clear that the scope of the allegations are   
   far-reaching and may impact the state for years to come.   
      
   Here’s what we know and what we don’t.   
   What is being investigated?   
   Then-Superintendent Jan Cahill speaks at a graduation ceremony at the   
   State Police Academy in 2018 as Gov. Jim Justice looks on. Photo courtesy   
   the Governor’s Office.   
      
   Sometime last year, an anonymous letter was sent to the office of Gov. Jim   
   Justice, alleging over a dozen incidents of misconduct within the State   
   Police. It detailed drunken fights, office affairs, misspent funds,   
   overtime theft, sexual assaults, and how a trooper had installed a hidden   
   camera in the women’s locker room at the State Police Training Academy.   
      
   The letter worked its way through the state government like a slow-burning   
   fuse. In the last few weeks, it has exploded. After the letter was sent to   
   legislators and described by media outlets in mid-February, the governor   
   confirmed several acts of misconduct among troopers. State Police   
   Superintendent Jan Cahill has resigned under pressure from Justice. And   
   State Police have arrested a trooper on domestic violence charges, which   
   his attorney says are retaliation for speaking out.   
      
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   Yet despite the revelations, critical elements of the sprawling scandal   
   remain unknown. Most of the allegations in the letter have neither been   
   publicly substantiated nor disproven. And Justice has not released the   
   results of an initial investigation he said was completed over a week ago,   
   despite vowing to be “one-thousand percent transparent.”   
      
   Meanwhile, Cahill has vigorously defended himself, saying he is “a fall   
   guy” who was kept in the dark about the entire inquiry until Justice   
   pressured him to resign.   
      
   Justice has spoken publicly and released the most information about three   
   incidents:   
      
       An alleged theft by a state police trooper at the Mardi Gras Casino in   
   Cross Lanes in 2021   
       Alleged video taping inside the women’s locker room at the State   
   Police Academy in Institute.   
       The death of a man during an encounter with state police on Interstate   
   81 in the Eastern Panhandle in February.   
      
   What happened at the casino?   
   A frame from the surveillance video from the Mardi Gras Casino released by   
   the Governor’s Office.   
      
   Justice has provided the most information about an alleged theft of   
   roughly $750 by a veteran state police officer at the Mardi Gras Casino.   
      
   A video released of the 2021 incident shows the man, who has not been   
   identified, picking up an envelope off the chair of the slot machine.   
      
   The officer ultimately returned the money and hasn’t been charged with a   
   crime. He resigned last month after the incident was brought to light.   
      
   Justice said that the officer should have been fired and accused Cahill,   
   the superintendent at the time, of botching the investigation. Cahill has   
   said he did not have the ability to fire the officer.   
   How did a camera get in the women’s locker room at the State Police   
   Academy? How long was it there?   
      
   When Justice spoke to the media on March 20, he described how a state   
   trooper had installed a camera in the women’s locker room at the State   
   Police Training Academy in Institute. Justice said that when troopers   
   discovered evidence of women being taped, they destroyed it.   
      
   Justice did not name the trooper in question, but said he was deceased.   
   It’s also unclear when the taping began, when it stopped, whether there is   
   any additional footage or whether any other troopers were involved.   
      
   Cahill told MetroNews that he was aware of only one woman who had been   
   filmed and that she didn’t want there to be any further investigation.   
      
   But on March 23, Wheeling-based attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a letter to   
   the State Police, notifying the agency that several women who used the   
   locker room at the Academy intend to sue.   
      
   She said in an interview that she now has eight clients and that dozens   
   more have contacted her office. She said that it’s not only state troopers   
   who may have been videotaped but that police officers from agencies all   
   across the state use the facility for training.   
      
   “In the last decade, any woman who was a police officer in West Virginia   
   had to come through and now has to ask this question: Was I taped?” she   
   said.   
      
   Toriseva says her clients feel violated by the possible videotaping but   
   are still “proud of their service as law enforcement officers.”   
   How did a man die on I-81 after a struggle with police?   
   Edmond Exline, 45, died in February after a struggle with State Police   
   troopers on I-81 in Berkeley County.   
      
   The death of Edmond Exline has also become part of the ongoing   
   investigation. Exline died late Feb. 12 after a struggle with state   
   troopers on I-81 near the Maryland border.   
      
   Details are sparse. The State Police have released little information.   
   Even Exline’s family is still in the dark about what happened.   
      
   Sarah Hartman-Exline, Edmond Exline’s sister-in-law, said Maryland state   
   troopers knocked on their door in Hagerstown, M.D, at about 2:30 a.m. They   
   then informed her and her husband that Exline was dead.   
      
   She said she and her husband made more than 100 phone calls to the West   
   Virginia State Police to gather details about Exline’s death. A trooper   
   eventually told her that Exline, 45, was encountered by officers after a   
   911 caller reported an intoxicated man walking on the highway.   
      
   Exline’s family said he suffered from schizophrenia, which often caused   
   him to act erratically.   
      
   Hartman-Exline said the trooper told her that a Taser was used on Exline,   
   that numerous officers were involved, and that there was a five-minute   
   window where the troopers didn’t respond to the dispatcher.   
      
   Both Justice and Cahill have watched the video and described it as   
   unsettling.   
      
   “The audio concerned me right off the bat, the commands, the screaming,”   
   Cahill said.   
      
      
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