Cabell County Chief Deputy Chuck Zerkle
HUNTINGTON – A social worker is accusing Cabell County’s Chief Deputy Sheriff of grabbing her and threatening to arrest her for recording an arrest on a downtown Huntington street.
Emilea Burgh filed her complaint August 6 in federal court, a day after she says Chief Deputy Chuck Zerkle grabbed her and threatened to have her arrested for obstruction.
Adams
The defendants are Zerkle, current Sheriff Doug Adams, the Cabell County Sheriff’s Office and the Cabell County Commission.
Burgh’s attorney, Tyler Haslam, said the incident was captured by multiple cellphone videos.
Haslam
“Obviously, what’s contained within the video is disturbing,” Haslam told The West Virginia Record. “We are looking forward to this being able to adjudicate this case in front of a jury.
“We’re still in the process of completing our investigation, so if anyone out there saw what happened, we’d love to talk to them to make sure all viewpoints are captured.”
According to the complaint, Burgh is a licensed independent clinical social worker. She says she was standing on a public sidewalk filming an arrested by deputies when Zerkle approached her.
“Get that shit out of here,” Zerkle told Burgh, according to the complaint, as he swiped her phone and struck her with his hand. It also says Zerkle told her to leave her spot on the public sidewalk and to stop recording.
When Burgh said she was “simply filming the actions of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Deputies,” the complaint says Zerkle told her, “You’re gonna get arrested for obstruction.”
“Zerkle then removed his handcuffs from his duty belt, shook them in Ms. Burgh’s face and stated, ‘You wanna set of handcuffs?’ Zerkle then grabbed Ms. Burgh by the arm and drug her to where deputies were arresting the other citizen. After moving Ms. Burgh approximately 15 feet, Zerkle turned to Ms. Burgh and stated, ‘Get your ass out of here.’”
After Burgh moved further away than her original location, she says Zerkle approached her again. Zerkle then told Burgh and others they needed to remove themselves from a public sidewalk.
The complaint says Zerkle moved away before approaching Burgh a third time, and he denied previously grabbing Burgh.
“Zerkle instead claimed to have only ‘touched’ Ms. Burgh and then he placed his hands on Ms. Burgh’s shoulders in an apparent demonstration of what he believed to be his previous actions,” the complaint states. “At both instances, Ms. Burgh did not want to be touched by Zerkle.”
She says Adams witnessed Zerkle’s actions.
“Realizing that he was being filmed from multiple angles, Zerkle then disengaged with Ms. Burgh,” the complaint states. “Ms. Burgh later went to file a complaint against Zerkle at the Cabell County Courthouse. As Ms. Burgh was filing her complaint, she was against approached by Zerkle.
“Zerkle admitted to ‘losing his cool’ during the previous encounter with Ms. Burgh.”
The complaint also says the right to record law enforcement is protected speech under the First Amendment, and recording police encounters is a clearly established right.
She accuses Zerkle twice of excessive force, First Amendment retaliation and unlawful seizure and/or detention. She accuses Adams of failure to intervene. She accuses the county defendants of failure to hire, train and supervise and for customs, policies and practices violating the Fourteenth Amendment as well as state law battery, state law assault, state law negligent training/supervision and state law intentional and/or negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Burgh seeks joint and several compensatory damages, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, court costs, attorney fees and other relief. She is being represented by Haslam of Haslam Law Firm in Huntington.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:25-cv-490
