West Virginia State Police cruiser.
CHARLESTON – A circuit judge has given a former State Trooper whose anonymous letter spurred investigations, resignations and demotions two weeks to file an amended complaint in his retaliation lawsuit.
During an April 8 hearing, Kanawha Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard granted former Cpl. Joseph Comer a leave of court to amend his complaint. The defendants – the West Virginia State Police, former Superintendent Jan Cahill, 1st Lt. James T. Findlay Jr. and former 1st Sgt. Kenneth William Huddleston – had filed a motion saying the WVSP should be exempt from the suit based on sovereign immunity.
Ballard gave Comer’s attorneys until April 22 to file the amended complaint. The defendants then will have until May 6 to file a response. The judge also temporarily halted all pending motions and told both parties to complete supplemental filings for those by June 6.
Another hearing now is scheduled for July 28.
Comer filed the lawsuit in October 2024 claiming he was retaliated against by the defendants after he began asking questions about possible misconduct within the department. Comer also wrote a 2022 letter accusing WVSP members of placing hidden cameras in the women’s locker room at the State Police Academy in Institute.
“Defendants perfectly embody the maxim, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely,’” Comer’s 40-page complaint begins. “What happened to plaintiff is a frightening example and a cautionary tale about what high-ranking law enforcement officers who believe they are above the law and accountable to no one are capable of doing to silence, punish and imprison anyone who has the courage to speak out publicly and hold them accountable.”
Comer claims certain WVSP members were involved in various acts of misconduct before 2021, including hidden cameras. Comer says former Academy 1st Sgt. Joseph Portaro placed the camera to catch former Chief of Staff Reginald Patterson and a female lab director having sex in the locker room.
“Defendants found multiple thumb drives in Portaro’s office that contained hours of recorded video,” the complaint states. “Many other female students/cadets and female troopers may have also been videoed.”
Comer says the defendants never officially reported or conducted an investigation into what they had discovered. Instead, he says they concealed the evidence until they decided to destroy it.
“The fate of the videos was sealed when defendants gave Reginald Patterson control over the thumb drives,” the complaint states. “In collusion with then-Major Shallon Oglesby, the thumb drives would be smashed with a hammer and destroyed.”
But Comer says that was only one of many acts of misconduct.
Others, he says, include wasting taxpayer money, making unauthorized purchases of personal items with state money, claiming to have worked more hours, using state vehicles to engage in extra-marital affairs, supervisors stealing overtime from members under their command, failing to report crashes of state vehicles before concealing the repair records and failing to investigate claims of at least five women who allegedly were sexually assaulted by supervisors.
Comer says he learned of some of these acts in 2021 and began investigating them himself. He says he began to ask questions to some members who had been involved in committing or concealing the misconduct. As a result, he says Cahill and others began a “concerted campaign to retaliate” against and punish him.
The complaint details several alleged acts of retaliation against Comer, including officers served him with custody documents about a child he had with another trooper. Comer says he was threatened with a domestic violence petition during that meeting.
Comer says the defendants found a way to exploit and use the “on again, off again” relationship he had with the other trooper “to punish and silence” him.
He says he was investigated twice in November 2021 for domestic violence claims that were unsubstantiated. He says he was placed on administrative leave for 18 days.
In March 2022, Comer says he made full sergeant. But he says he was not promoted. The next month, Cahill issued a notice of intent to discipline Comer for two acts of misconduct with the trooper he had a relationship with and for misusing the WVSP Computer-Aided Dispatch system. Findley wrote a 33-page report claimed Comer had an inappropriate relationship with the woman while he worked at the academy and she was a trainee. Comer claims this notice was “baseless and frivolous.”
Soon after, Comer was demoted to corporal and suspended three days.
In the summer of 2022, Comer says he drafted his anonymous letter to the Department of Homeland Security about Portaro’s hidden camera, the destroyed thumb drives and other acts of alleged misconduct. In early 2023, he drafted a similar anonymous letter to the West Virginia Attorney General’s office and members of the state Senate and House of Delegates.
The complaint also details court proceedings regarding alleged domestic battery and felony strangulation related to child custody exchanges in late 2022. In September 2023, Comer was arrested and turned himself in for violating a DVP that actually had been terminated two months earlier. He was fired, and Comer says he signed a plea agreement in November 2023 only to be released from jail and placed on probation.
Comer accuses the defendants of violating the West Virginia Whistle-Blower Law, prima facie negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation of character, retaliatory prosecution, wrongful termination, violating his First Amendment right protecting criticism of public officials and civil conspiracy.
He says he has suffered humiliation, indignity, embarrassment, shame, mental anguish, mental suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and monetary losses such as lost wages and benefits as well as diminished earning capacity. He seeks compensatory damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief.
Comer is being represented by Richard E. Holtzapfel of Holtzapfel Law Offices in Hurricane and by David Moye in Winfield. The WVSP and Cahill are being represented by Wendy Greve, Jacob Layne and Evan Olds of Pullin Fowler Flanagan Brown & Poe in Charleston. Cahill also is being represented by J. Philip Fraley and David C. Ray of Elkins Ray in Huntington. Findley is being represented by Cy Hill and Allison Subacz of Cipriani & Werner in Charleston. Huddleston is being represented by Brant Tyson Miller and Amy Brinkos of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 24-C-1126
