A strip search of a woman in the La Plata County jail usually went like this: undress, lift your right breast so a deputy can look underneath. Lift your left breast. Show behind your ears, in your mouth. Squat and cough. Bend over at the waist, spread your buttocks, let the deputy take a look there, too.
“It was so utterly violating,” said K.T., a woman jailed there in 2021 who is being identified by her initials to protect her privacy. It felt, in many ways, like a sexual assault, she said.
The strip search and her stint in jail as a 20-year-old had been the lowest moments of her life, she said. But last month, the now-25-year-old new mother learned that a La Plata County Sheriff’s Office commander allegedly viewed the body-worn camera footage of her strip search at least 50 times. The commander, Edward Aber, is accused of watching at least 117 inmates’ strip-search videos as many as 3,100 times for sexual gratification over at least a five-year span.
“Jail was rock bottom until I found out about this,” said K.T., who lives outside of Durango. She had a panic attack when she heard the news. She felt sick. Her skin crawled. “It threw me right back into jail. I feel like I’m back in that jail cell. He took an already violating experience and he made it so much more violating.”
K.T. is one of 21 women who have sued over the revelations, in two lawsuits that attorneys expect to eventually be a combined class-action case that includes hundreds of plaintiffs. She and two other women spoke with The Denver Post this month about their experiences in the jail and the impact of Aber’s actions, each on the condition they be identified only by their initials to protect their privacy.
“I feel very uncomfortable with myself,” said 34-year-old I.W., who turned herself in to the jail in 2024. “Knowing a grown man was watching these without my permission — I just don’t know if it was for his eyes only, I don’t know if he shared it with nobody else. Ever since I found out about that, I just haven’t been myself lately. I feel embarrassed and upset. And very disappointed. When you go into a facility like that, you are supposed to at least feel safe.”
Aber, 62, was charged in July with 117 misdemeanor counts of invasion of privacy and a single misdemeanor count of official misconduct. He resigned from the sheriff’s office in 2024 during an internal investigation into workplace sexual harassment. That internal investigation led authorities to the strip-search videos, which sheriff’s officials say Aber frequently viewed late at night or early in the morning, and at least twice from Denver-area hotels.
Aber’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The investigations also revealed a string of red flags that authorities should have taken note of to stop Aber’s misconduct sooner, said attorney Neil Singh Sandhu, who is representing some of the women in the lawsuits.
In one instance, a colleague entered Aber’s office to find an inmate crouched under his desk, according to an affidavit filed against Aber in the criminal case. Another time, Aber suggested that a colleague watch women’s strip-search videos, according to the affidavit. (The colleague declined to do so.)
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office hired Aber in 2005 despite a previous complaint of sexual harassment lodged against him when he was a Durango police officer, the lawsuits allege, and he was known to take female inmates on one-on-one “errands” outside of the jail.
“Blame for Commander Aber’s abuse rests not only with him but with the elected officials who hired and enabled him for years,” Singh Sandhu said. He took issue with the sheriff’s policy of recording all strip searches and then storing the videos for years in a system that could be accessed by command staff without oversight.
I.W. and K.T. both worry that the commander kept copies of their strip-search videos, that he shared them with other people, that the videos might be out on the internet somewhere.
“I would die if my daughter found something like that of her mother on the internet someday,” K.T. said. “It’s mortifying.”
During the nearly two years she spent in the La Plata County jail, C.B., a 44-year-old Cortez resident, lost count of how many times she was strip-searched. It never got easier, she said.
“It was very intrusive and very uncomfortable,” she said. “Like, if I didn’t bend over enough, they would let you know.”
She was angry when she learned about Aber’s alleged abuse, and she felt betrayed: He was the person she’d sought help from in the jail when she was having trouble accessing her medications. She thought he was trustworthy.
Now she’d like to see him convicted and sentenced to jail. I.W. would like an apology. All of the women want accountability and changes to prevent any similar abuse in the future.
All three women emphasized that they’ve moved on from their time in jail. I.W., who was jailed for driving under the influence, has been sober for nearly two years now. K.T. feels like her 20-year-old self was a different person entirely. She’s trying to cope by keeping busy, by focusing on the life she’s built since her release.
“I’m not that person anymore, and I’m in a better place now,” she said.
When C.B. left the La Plata County jail, she transferred to a federal prison where she served three months. When she entered the prison, she went through a strip search. But it was much less invasive than the county jail’s search — she wasn’t required to bend over or spread her legs.
“I was surprised, I was like, ‘I don’t have to do any of that stuff?’” she said.
She’s been home now for about a year and a half, and spends most of her time caring for a relative.
“I’ve definitely learned from my mistakes and struggling, and I’ve gotten better at being back home and a new lifestyle for me,” C.B. said. “I’m going to push through it. I’m not going to let it set me back.”