A former employee at a Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center in Manhasset admitted that he had been filming patients since 2005, according to prosecutors.
Sanjai Syamaprasad, 48, entered a guilty plea in July to five counts of unlawful surveillance and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. He was sentenced to six months in jail and five years’ probation in November.
Syamaprasad initially pleaded not guilty to these charges when he was indicted in April.
The criminal case unveiled that Syamaprasad installed cameras that looked like smoke detectors in multiple public and staff bathrooms at Northwell’s Sleep Disorder Center and the STARS Rehabilitation Center in the same Manhasset medical building. According to District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office, this had occurred between July 2023 and April 2024, when he was arrested for these crimes.
But prosecutors said at a hearing earlier this month that Syamaprasad admitted to his probation officers that he had actually been recording patients since 2005.
When arrested in April 2024, multiple electronics such as phones, an SD card reader and three laptops were recovered from his home in Brooklyn, according to Donnelly’s office. An investigation found that Syamaprasad destroyed evidence and threw away the SD cards and camera he had used in a CVS dumpster.
In response to the criminal prosecution, multiple civil lawsuits have been filed by patients who could have been recorded.
Patients and staff filed a personal injury lawsuit with Sokolove Law against Syamaprasad. The firm had said Northwell had notified over 13,000 people who had been affected by Syamaprasad’s actions.
