Legal Battle Erupts After Arrest of La Plata Jail Commissioner

By Maddie Rhodes | KDVR FOX31

DENVER (KDVR) — A federal class action lawsuit was filed against La Plata County, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and several others after the former La Plata County jail commissioner was arrested for allegedly watching inmate strip-searches for his sexual gratification.

On Wednesday, the attorneys filed a lawsuit for several people who said they were victims of Edward Aber, the former La Plata jail commissioner, who faces charges on 117 counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification and one count of first-degree official misconduct.

The lawsuit claims that Aber allegedly watched videos of at least 117 different female inmates during their mandatory strip-search for his own sexual gratification. Many victims were nude in these videos.

This allegedly took place for five years between 2019 and 2024, where he allegedly watched the videos thousands of times from his home, hotel room and other locations.

The victims are suing Aber as well as La Plata County, the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Sean Smith and several others.

The lawsuit said these people oversaw Aber and bear the responsibility for this abuse through policies, practices, training and supervision with several other John Does failing to intervene.

“To say this is absolutely disgusting isn’t nearly strong enough,” said Jason Kosloski of Kosloski Law, PLLC, a civil rights attorney representing the victims. “The fact that Aber not only victimized these women for years violating their most fundamental rights as human beings, but that the county, the Board of Commissioners and the Sheriff let him do it should shock and frighten us all.”

The lawsuit is asking for compensatory damages, physical and mental pain, emotional distress, humiliation, injunctive relief to modify the county and sheriff’s office’s polices and procedures, among other compensation.

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