CHARLESTON ­– An initial investigation ordered by Gov. Jim Justice into alleged wrongdoing by the West Virginia State Police is over, resulting in the resignation of Superintendent Col. Jan Cahill, the appointment of a new interim superintendent, and a mandate to clean up the state’s top law enforcement agency.

Justice announced the next steps for the West Virginia State Police Monday afternoon in a virtual briefing with reporters, confirming several alleged incidents involving State Police leadership, and also confirming a federal investigation.

“We need to support our police, but we need to clean up our own house when we have a problem,” Justice said. “It’s a bad day. It’s been a bad day ever since people started coming out with allegations. The more we dug, the worse it stunk … we’re going to clean it up and we’re going to absolutely make it a place of honor beyond belief.”

Justice announced earlier Monday morning that Cahill, the former sheriff of Greenbrier County who has served as State Police Superintendent since Justice first took office as Governor in 2017, resigned effective 9:30 a.m. Monday. Cahill’s resignation came prior to a meeting at Justice’s Lewisburg home Monday morning.

“The first thing I told him is ‘Jan, there is no pathway here … that you can absolutely remain as the colonel of the State Police in the State of West Virginia, but I’ll listen,'” Justice said. “He’s a proud man … literally what I think has happened here is just this: while there was surely good, surely there was bad judgment at this point in time. Bad judgment leads to bad things.”

The new interim superintendent will be Jack Chambers, a deputy director with the West Virginia Capitol Police with 26 years of experience in law enforcement with both the Capitol Police and the State Police, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

“He’s a man of honor, he’ll do the right things, and we entrust upon him to do any level of rightness and clean-up,” Justice said. “There are many areas of allegations; Jack Chambers will absolutely address those allegations.

The Department of Homeland Security began an internal investigation of top leadership of the West Virginia State Police after the Governor’s Office received an anonymous letter a few months ago. Lawmakers and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey also received an anonymous letter.

Allegations include the use of ghost accounts to get around state purchasing rules, misuse of state purchasing cards for personal purchases, extramarital affairs between officers and fights, misuse of federal grants, overtime abuse and more. The story was first broken by WCHS-TV in Charleston.

One allegation confirmed by Justice Monday alleges that a now-deceased State Police employee placed cameras in the women’s locker room at the State Police Academy in Institute. When three troopers discovered a thumb drive containing the videos from the locker room, one of the troopers attempted to destroy the thumb drive by smashing it with their boot.

“The very biggest allegation that is to not be tolerated in any way is that we have violated – at our State Police-level – women’s rights,” Justice said. “I don’t know how many things can be much, much worse than that. Wouldn’t you absolutely think that a women’s locker room ought to be a safe place?”

Another incident confirmed by Justice involved two unnamed State Police troopers who allegedly stole money from an individual at Mardi Gras Casino and Resort in Kanawha County. According to published reports, Justice Chief of Staff Brian Abraham ordered Cahill on Feb. 16 to fire both troopers, but instead one trooper was allowed to retire and the other was transferred.

“Any way you cut it, that money was stolen,” Justice said. “Then as far as us doing a quick investigation and getting right on to what we should get on to, we didn’t do that. I’m asking Jack Chambers to re-open that investigation and handle it properly.”

Justice also called on Chambers to monitor the investigation into the death of an individual from Hagerstown, Md., in February after a struggle with State Police along I-81 in the Eastern Panhandle. After being tazed, Edmond Exline Sr. was pronounced dead at the scene.

A March 2 memorandum from Abraham to Cahill directed the State Police to turn over electronic data and communications from Cahill and several top officials of the State Police, including emails, activity logs, text messages, and more. Over the last two months, Justice has confirmed the internal investigation.

On Friday, Justice said he expected to be briefed on the final investigative report. While that initial investigation is complete, Justice confirmed that a federal investigation is also ongoing. Justice expects Chambers and Sandy to continue to investigate further.

“I have directed the interim superintendent Chambers to work with (Homeland) Secretary (Jeff) Sandy and my office to implement several actions to restore trust and integrity beyond belief to the West Virginia State Police,” Justice said. “I can promise you the feds are already looking at the stuff, and I don’t think we should run from that. If there is bad stuff there, we welcome whomever.”

During the 2023 session, the Legislature passed House Bill 3360, creating an Office of the Inspector General within the Department of Homeland Security. The Office of the Inspector General will conduct and supervise internal investigations into the eight agencies the department manages: the West Virginia Fusion Center, the Division of Emergency Management, Justice and Community Services, the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Parole Board, the Division of Protective Services, the State Fire Marshal and the West Virginia State Police.