A former La Plata County Jail commander pleaded not guilty Monday to invasion of privacy and official misconduct charges – setting his case up for trial.
In doing so, he turned down a plea deal some lawyers and victims deemed too lenient.
Former Cmdr. Ed Aber was accused last year of viewing strip search videos of more than 100 female inmates for his own sexual gratification during his tenure at the jail.
According to an email sent to a victim by a prosecutor working the case, the plea deal offered to Aber and his lawyer, Barry Newberger King, before Monday’s plea hearing would have charged Aber with four counts of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification and one count of official misconduct.
The plea deal called for up to two years in jail – with the judge having discretion on the duration – or five years of probation and up to 60 days in jail. Aber also would have had to register as a sex offender and would have been stripped of his Peace Officer Standards and Training certification.
Cameron Bedard, a Front Range criminal defense and police misconduct civil rights attorney, called the proposed plea deal “unusual.”
“The wake of damage done to incarcerated people who have been victimized by a person who’s responsible for their custodial safety is diminished by a plea deal like this,” he told The Durango Herald.
Suzanne Garcia was one of five victims named in the case who attended the Monday hearing. She said she supports the case going to trial, and plans to speak during proceedings.
“The outcome really, now, at this point, is going to lay in the hands of a jury, and I trust the people of La Plata County to look at the evidence that’s presented and to determine whether or not the proof is sufficient to substantiate a conviction,” she said. “... And if it ends up that there is plenty of evidence and he’s found guilty, then my only prayer to the court would be that the punishment is appropriate to the crime, and that it recognizes each of those 117 women who were violated.”
Garcia said she resents the lack of pretrial services doled out to Aber, referring to the restriction of freedoms that can be placed on criminal suspects pending trial.
“He wasn’t arrested; he’s not been subjected to what we were subjected to,” she said, referring to herself and other victims. “He’s not on pretrial services right now. He can go home and shoot his guns and drink a bottle of bourbon if he wants, and he probably will. That’s wrong. That is not fair, and that is not right.”
The District Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about what, if any, restrictions have been placed on Aber pending trial. However, protection and no contact orders were put in place for all named victims.
A motion was denied in September that would have required Aber to relinquish any firearms.
Bedard said it is far more common for pretrial restrictions to be put in place in felony cases than in misdemeanor situations. But some misdemeanor cases, including those that involve allegations of unlawful sexual behavior, do sometimes invoke pretrial services.
Bedard said it is common for a plea deal to be revoked by a district attorney's office once a defendant proceeds with a “not guilty” plea and sets the case for trial. But a plea deal can still be struck in the case.
“You never know on the defense side what exactly goes into the calculus as to why a district attorney would enter into a last-minute plea deal,” he said. “There's a lot of factors, right?”
The 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to request for comment on whether the option of a plea deal remains open to Aber.
According to an arrest affidavit filed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation in July, Aber allegedly watched the strip-search videos – which depicted “close-up vantage points of the intimate parts of at least 117 female inmates” – more than 3,000 times between Feb. 14, 2019, and Jan. 14, 2024, using his administrative access to evidence.com.
He was charged with 117 counts of invasion of privacy and one count of official misconduct – all misdemeanors.
A trial was set for Aug. 10.
“Everybody is looking at us right now, and they are counting on the District Attorney's Office and this community to do the right thing,” Garcia said after Monday’s hearing. “We’ve got one shot to do the right thing, and whatever that may be, now it will be in the hands of a jury.”
epond@durangoherald.com
