A Martinsburg, West Virginia, woman is under investigation by Jefferson County Schools (JCS) for producing and distributing pornographic material at the high school where she works as a counselor for at-risk children.
The woman, Taylor Loren Staubs, 31, is alleged to have taken highly explicit photos in her office and various other rooms at Washington High School during school hours on a near-daily basis. A source close to the investigation stated that Staubs would then send the pornographic images to men, post them in Facebook chats, and share them in a large Discord channel for a sex club in Pennsylvania.
Under West Virginia indecent exposure laws, creating pornographic content in a private area of a public space—such as Staubs’s office in the back of a classroom—may be prosecuted if the actions were “likely to cause affront or alarm to others.” Sources indicate that neither School Resource Officer Michael Lipscomb nor the JCS investigator knew whether Staubs had a lock on her office door, which was just feet away from students.
If the photos allegedly taken by Ms. Staub were created at the time they were sent, it is highly likely the indecent photos were created during school hours, and on school property.
On October 26, a criminal complaint was filed against Taylor Staubs with the Charles Town Police Department. The following day, authorities met with a witness who shared censored photos of Staubs with School Resource Officer Michael Lipscomb, who confirmed the images were taken in Staubs’s office and other rooms in the high school. Lipscomb, who works alongside Staubs at the school, could not confirm whether there was a lock on the door to Staubs’s office, which is accessible only by walking through a student-filled classroom.
An investigator with the Charles Town Police Department found no criminal acts had been committed by Staubs and referred the matter to an investigator with Jefferson County Schools for administrative action, according to sources.
When asked for comment on the investigation, JCS removed Taylor Staubs’s name and contact information from the Washington High School website before issuing the following statement: “Jefferson County Schools does not comment on specific personnel matters or actions outside of the board agenda items. When Jefferson County Schools receives information regarding inappropriate conduct by an employee, we immediately begin an investigation into the allegations. It is not unusual for an employee to be placed on leave during the process. Pending the outcome of the investigation, employees either return to work or are recommended for disciplinary action up to and including termination. At this time, Jefferson County Schools has no knowledge of any incident that involves or would jeopardize the safety and well-being of our students.”
Despite JCS stating it has “no knowledge of any incident” that would “jeopardize the safety and well-being of our students,” a school district investigator was provided with screenshots confirming that Staubs is friends on Snapchat with at least one child—a 17-year-old high school boy in neighboring Berkeley County. The screenshots were obtained through an ethical exploit within Snapchat and showed all of Staubs’s friends on the messaging app, which is known for sharing disappearing photos and videos. Friends appear in order of most recent contact. The 17-year-old boy was the second contact, while Staubs’s current paramour, Captain Trent Heckman of the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, was her sixth contact.
Several other profiles that appear to be associated with underage boys are also on Staubs’s Snapchat contact list.
According to a source, law enforcement was provided with this information but determined that no probable cause existed to take further action against Staubs.
Before working at Washington High School, Taylor Staubs was a well-known former forensic interviewer and supervisor for the Children’s Home Society in Martinsburg, WV. According to Staubs’s curriculum vitae—filed in several cases where she appeared as an expert witness in child abuse and neglect proceedings—she conducted over 300 forensic interviews with children and was sworn in as an expert witness dozens of times in Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan county courts.
Staubs was regarded as a rising star in the local court system, where her stepfather, Berkeley County Circuit Court Judge R. Steven Redding, has served on the bench since his appointment in 2018. Redding is currently one of four candidates under consideration by West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey to fill a vacancy on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
According to court documents and sources close to the matter, Staubs served as an expert witness in a July 2024 trial alongside her lover, Captain Trent Heckman—who was married at the time—without disclosing their alleged affair.
The conflict potentially created a Brady violation in a high-profile case that resulted in the incarceration of a couple accused of child abuse.
Staubs was no longer employed by the Children’s Home Society after that trial for unknown reasons and transitioned from forensic interviewing to a grant-funded position as a School Facilitator at Washington High School through the non-profit Communities in Schools. Jefferson County Schools employs and pays Taylor Staubs.
Court proceedings also show that Taylor Staubs, Steve Redding, and Trent Heckman were recently implicated in an alleged scheme beginning in 2019 to have Staubs’s ex-husband, Travis Miller, falsely convicted of domestic violence to gain a custody advantage over their child. Staubs was not a party to the domestic violence allegations or involved in the incident.
Miller, who was six years from military retirement at the time of his conviction and was immediately discharged as a result, filed a Writ of Coram Nobis in Berkeley County Circuit Court on Halloween. The extraordinary legal filing requested that Miller’s conviction be overturned based on newly obtained evidence that Taylor Staubs illegally obtained Miller’s criminal file to mirror statements of the alleged victim and secure his conviction. The alleged victim was Miller’s partner at the time; the couple later married following their court ordeal, which they allege was a conspiracy orchestrated by Staubs using her stepfather’s judicial authority, her law enforcement paramour’s connections, and ties within the victim advocate community.
In the Coram Nobis filing, Miller’s wife provided an affidavit recalling a meeting with a domestic violence advocate and a prosecuting attorney in which she was told: “Taylor is a very good friend of ours. She came to us off the record, and to be honest, we’re here to get justice for Taylor.”
Following that meeting, Travis Miller was convicted by Judge Laura Faircloth—a colleague of Staubs’s stepfather—of domestic violence and given a one-year suspended sentence and three years of probation. Miller’s attorney, recommended to him by Judge Steve Redding, objected to Miller’s then-partner testifying in his defense.
The conspiracy was recently exposed when, on October 6, 2025, Staubs submitted a filing in her custody case with Miller in Berkeley County Family Court that included Miller’s entire criminal file from the incident—containing the victim’s name, address, his child’s name, and even Miller’s driver’s license number—indicating that Staubs had illegally obtained it.
It remains unclear whether Taylor Staubs will be able to leverage the influence of her stepfather and law enforcement paramour to avoid termination by the Jefferson County Board of Education, which is holding a regular school board meeting on Monday, November 10.
On the agenda is an executive session to discuss “personnel matters”; however, no action is noted, as is typical with past agendas where a vote to terminate an employee follows the executive session.
The Charles Town Police Department closed its investigation of Taylor Staubs on the same day it was opened—before meeting with the witness, the school resource officer, or reviewing the evidence. The investigator who made the decision to close the case knew Staubs from her prior work as a forensic interviewer.
Under West Virginia indecent exposure laws, creating pornographic content in a private area of a public space—such as Staubs’s office in the back of a classroom—may be prosecuted if the actions were “likely to cause affront or alarm to others.” Sources indicate that neither School Resource Officer Michael Lipscomb nor the JCS investigator knew whether Staubs had a lock on her office door, which was just feet away from students.
National File reached out to Ms. Staub by telephone for comment for this article. She hung up the telephone without offering even one word of explanation.