On May 23, the North Shore University Sleep Disorders Center in New York notified HHS that 13,332 patients were affected by a breach that it coded as “Unauthorized Access/Disclosure” of data located “Other.” While the number affected might not seem unusually disturbing in this day and age of big breaches, the circumstances of the breach certainly are, as this was a sickening insider wrongdoing incident.
North Shore University Sleep Disorders Center is part of Northwell Health, and the Great Neck facility posted a substitute notice on May 22:
The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office (the “DA’s Office”) recently charged one of our former employees with crimes relating to unlawful surveillance in connection with allegations that he secretly video recorded certain individuals in the restrooms of the Center using an unauthorized, personal recording device. We discovered information relating to the former employee’s improper conduct on April 23, 2024 and promptly provided it to the DA’s Office.
The DA’s Office has determined that the former employee initially purchased the recording device that he eventually used at the Center on August 2, 2022. We do not know when and how frequently the former employee used the recording device after that date. According to a statement by the DA’s Office, the former employee would attach a fake smoke detector with a camera inside it to a bathroom at the Center through a Velcro patch, and then remove it at the end of his shift to access the video.
We have cooperated fully with the DA’s Office investigation and prosecution of this former employee. We also followed law enforcement’s instructions to delay notifying any patients while the investigation was ongoing, prior to the public indictment.
We do not have specific knowledge about which patients may have been recorded, what images were contained in the video recordings or how many recordings contained identifiable images, such as facial images. Nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we have notified all patients who visited the Center between when the DA’s Office determined that the former employee purchased the recording device until the date he was prevented from entering the premises on April 23, 2024.
Read more of the substitute notice on their site.
Although the center did not notify HHS and patients until May 22, the DA’s office took action in April. On April 16, 2025, the Nassau County DA’s office issued a press release:
Sanjai Syamaprasad, a former employee of the Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center, allegedly recorded patients in several bathrooms using a hidden camera inside a smoke detector at two facilities; five victims identified, including a child
MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Brooklyn man was indicted on charges of unlawful surveillance and tampering with evidence for allegedly installing a hidden camera located inside of a false smoke detector in public bathrooms in a sleep center in Manhasset between July 2023 and April 2024 and destroying evidence of the recordings.
Sanjai Syamaprasad, 47, was arraigned before Judge Meryl Berkowitz on grand jury indictment charges including five counts of Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree (an E felony) and two counts of Tampering with Physical Evidence (an E felony). The defendant pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on June 12, 2025. If convicted, Syamaprasad faces up to 1-1/3 to 4 years in prison.
“The allegations against this defendant are sickening and disturbing. Sanjai Syamaprasad allegedly used hidden cameras secreted in smoke detectors to capture hundreds of videos of patients in bathrooms at a sleep and rehabilitation center, including children. In a further violation, the defendant allegedly even watched some of the videos on his computer while at work,” said DA Donnelly. “Knowing that law enforcement was closing in, the defendant allegedly tried to cover his tracks, breaking up and disposing of the memory card to destroy any evidence of the recordings. We all expect professionals working in medical care to respect and value patient privacy. When they do not, and their actions are criminal, my office will pursue prosecution.”
DA Donnelly said that between at least July 2023 and April 2024, the defendant, a former employee of the Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center in Manhasset, allegedly affixed a hidden camera made to look like a smoke detector using Velcro discs on the walls inside staff and multiple patient bathrooms within the sleep center and in a public bathroom at STARS Rehabilitation, located in the same building as the sleep center.
Throughout this time period, the cameras captured recordings of approximately hundreds of individuals while they were using the bathrooms.
Based on images recovered and reviewed by NCDA investigators, five individuals were identified on the videos, including a child.
The defendant allegedly removed the camera at the end of his shift and downloaded the footage onto an SD card.
Northwell referred the conduct to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in April 2024.
On April 25, 2024, a search warrant was executed on the defendant’s home in Brooklyn and multiple electronics such as phones, an SD card reader, and three laptops were recovered.
Investigators learned that the defendant allegedly destroyed evidence, throwing the smoke detector camera and the broken-up SD card into a trash can at a local CVS pharmacy in Brooklyn. The smoke detector camera was ultimately recovered from a dumpster behind the store by a Nassau County Police Department detective.
The defendant was arrested by NCDA Detective Investigators on April 25, 2024.
The NCDA thanks the Nassau County Police Department and Northwell Health for their cooperation and assistance in this prosecution.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Bureau Chief Patrick Brand of the Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau under the supervision of Bureau Chief Jeremy Glicksman and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Investigations Division Rick Whelan. The defendant is represented by Julie Rendelman, Esq.
The charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.
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In related news media coverage, Syamaprasad is reportedly also under investigation for similar crimes at a Weill Cornell sleep center in Manhattan.