PITTSBURGH – A Pittsburgh woman has launched legal action for invasion of privacy after allegedly being one of 55 women, some of whom were cancer patients, captured on camera by a video voyeur in a restroom at West Penn Hospital.
Elizabeth Lovelidge of Pittsburgh filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on Oct. 7 versus West Penn Allegheny Health System, Inc. (doing business as “The Western Pennsylvania Hospital”), also of Pittsburgh.
“On Dec. 17, 2019, police were called to West Penn Hospital after an employee of the defendant discovered a camera in the unisex employee bathroom. Police determined that the camera had been intentionally positioned to capture ‘unsuspecting victims.’ In connection with this incident, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office criminally charged Guy Caley with invasion of privacy and illegal use of wire or oral communications,” the suit states.
“Caley was an employee of defendant West Penn Hospital. Caley admitted to using a hidden camera to record individuals without their consent in the unisex employee bathroom, another bathroom on the third floor of West Penn Hospital and in an examination room in West Penn Hospital. Caley has also admitted to downloading the video footage onto his personal computer.”
According to a criminal report filed on Sept. 2, 2020, at least 21 workers and 34 patients were recorded by Caley. All the identified victims have been female.
“The majority of the videos captured hospital employees using the bathroom toilet and hospital patients, either nude or partially nude, while in an imaging room within West Penn Hospital’s radiology department. Caley can be heard in some of the videos instructing the female patients to undress and change into a hospital gown. Most, if not all, the female patient victims were cancer or suspected cancer patients,” per the suit.
“Many of the videos display the same patient from multiple angles, suggesting that Caley utilized multiple cameras. In October of 2019, plaintiff presented to West Penn Hospital to undergo imaging for an upcoming procedure related to her Stage 4 skin cancer diagnosis. Once in the procedure room, plaintiff was instructed to get undressed and to put on a hospital gown. After the imaging was complete, plaintiff left West Penn Hospital and returned home.”
Lovelidge says she was notified by a detective with the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office in August that she had been identified as a victim in video recordings that were secretly filmed by Caley. Plaintiff was interviewed by the detective and shown the video recordings to confirm her identity and she confirmed it was her in the videos.
Lovelidge believes that West Penn Hospital knew or should have known that Caley engaged in systemic, widespread, long-term and unauthorized recording of female patients without their knowledge or consent.
For counts of negligence, invasion of privacy – intrusion upon seclusion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and vicarious liability, the plaintiff is seeking damages in a sum in excess of the arbitration limit, plus costs and any other relief as the Court deems just given the circumstances and a trial by jury.
The plaintiff is represented by Harry S. Cohen, Benjamin E. Cohen and Jaclyn M. DiPaola of Harry S. Cohen & Associates, in Pittsburgh.
The defendant has not yet obtained legal counsel.
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD-20-011595
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com