Northwell Sleep Center Lawsuit Over Hidden Bathroom Cameras

The Northwell hidden camera lawsuit is a wave of civil cases filed in New York courts against Northwell Health after a sleep technician at its Great Neck campus, Sanjai Syamaprasad, secretly recorded patients and visitors in bathrooms and changing rooms for roughly twenty months using cameras disguised as smoke detectors. The suits allege Northwell was negligent in hiring, supervising, and monitoring the employee, and that it then waited more than thirteen months after discovering the surveillance before telling the roughly 13,000 people affected.¹

What Happened at the Great Neck Facilities

Syamaprasad worked as a sleep technician at Northwell Health’s Sleep Disorders Center at 155 Community Drive and the adjacent STARS Rehabilitation Center at 145 Community Drive in Great Neck, New York. He attached small cameras hidden inside fake smoke detectors to walls and ceilings in bathrooms and changing rooms, sometimes directly above toilets, using Velcro. After his shifts he removed the devices, transferred footage to SD cards, and watched some of it on his work-issued laptop.²

In April 2024, a coworker walked in on him watching bathroom footage on the work computer. Northwell says it revoked his access and reported the conduct to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office on April 23, 2024. Investigators executed a search warrant two days later and recovered storage devices holding more than 300 videos of hundreds of individuals in various states of undress.²³

Who Can Sue

The lawsuits are open to patients, visitors, and others who used the bathrooms or changing rooms at either the Sleep Disorders Center or STARS Rehabilitation on Community Drive in Great Neck between August 2022 and April 2024. Because the two facilities share a campus and common areas, potential plaintiffs are not limited to sleep-study patients. Anyone who used those restrooms during the roughly twenty-month period may have been recorded.

Northwell mailed notification letters on May 22 and 23, 2025. Approximately 13,000 letters went out in total.¹ Receiving one of those letters is the clearest indicator that Northwell identified you as potentially affected, but people who used the facilities during the relevant period and did not receive a letter may still have claims.

What the Lawsuits Allege

The core theory is negligence by Northwell, not liability for the recording itself. Complaints across the filings generally allege:

Negligent hiring, training, retention, and supervision of Syamaprasad.
Failure to maintain adequate security in patient bathrooms and changing rooms.
Invasion of privacy.
Delayed notification to victims.

Some complaints also raise HIPAA violations and seek punitive damages on the theory that Northwell’s conduct amounted to gross negligence.¹ Plaintiffs are seeking compensation for emotional distress, psychological trauma, loss of privacy, and the cost of mental health treatment.⁴

The notification delay is central to the case. Northwell discovered the surveillance in April 2024 but did not write to patients until May 2025. The health system attributes the delay to a law enforcement request not to compromise the criminal investigation.³ Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue the delay went well beyond what the investigation required, noting that the SD cards and videos were already in the DA’s possession by late April 2024 and that the letters did not go out until more than a month after Syamaprasad’s public indictment.⁵

The Filings and Firms Involved

The cases are spread across at least two New York courts, with no publicly announced consolidation.

The first suit filed publicly was Brenda Pellettieri v. Northwell Health, Inc., et al. (Index No. 529375/2024), a class action brought by German Rubenstein LLP in Kings County Supreme Court on October 30, 2024, on behalf of an estimated 13,000 potentially affected individuals.⁶

In July 2025, Merson Law filed a separate action in Nassau County Supreme Court on behalf of about 250 patients, with attorney Nathan Werksman representing the plaintiffs. The firm has said the litigation could develop into a consolidated action or mass tort as more victims come forward.⁷⁴

Slater Slater Schulman LLP later filed suits in Nassau County Supreme Court on behalf of more than 400 victims.¹ Greenstein & Pittari, LLP filed a civil lawsuit in February 2026 (Index No. 602511/2026, Nassau County Supreme Court) that includes both class and individual claims.⁸

As of mid-2026, the civil cases remain in early stages. No settlements, class certification rulings, or trial dates have been publicly reported. No specific dollar demands have appeared in publicly available filings, though plaintiffs’ attorneys have pointed to the $190 million settlement in the Johns Hopkins hidden-camera case involving Dr. Nikita Levy as a comparison point.²

The Criminal Case

The criminal prosecution and the civil suits are separate. Syamaprasad, 48, of Brooklyn, was charged by the Nassau County District Attorney with five counts of unlawful surveillance in the second degree and two counts of tampering with physical evidence, all E felonies under New York law. He pleaded guilty to all seven counts on July 15, 2025.⁹

Prosecutors had recommended seven to twenty-one years in prison. On November 20, 2025, Judge Meryl Berkowitz sentenced him to six months in jail and five years of probation.⁹ He was also ordered to register as a sex offender.¹⁰ Some plaintiffs and victims publicly said they did not believe justice had been served.⁵ Although only five identified victims, including one child, were named in the criminal charges, the civil litigation is not limited to those five.¹¹

Northwell’s Position

A Northwell spokesperson called the situation “deeply disturbing” and said the health system immediately barred Syamaprasad from its facilities, reported the matter to the DA’s office, and fully cooperated with the investigation.⁵¹²¹³

1
PR Newswire. Slater Slater Schulman LLP Files Lawsuits on Behalf of Over 400 Victims
2
Lawsuit Information Center. Northwell Hidden Camera Lawsuit
3
HIPAA Journal. Brooklyn Man Indicted for Secretly Filming Patients at Northwell Health
4
Merson Law. Great Neck Hidden Camera Lawsuit
5
ABC7 New York. Lawsuit Claims Northwell Health Worker Installed Hidden Cameras
6
PR Newswire. German Rubenstein LLP Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Northwell Health
7
News 12 Long Island. 250 Patients File Lawsuit Against Northwell Health
8
PR Newswire. Greenstein and Pittari LLP Files Lawsuit on Behalf of Victim
9
Nassau County District Attorney. Syamaprasad Sentencing Announcement
10
NY Daily News. Brooklyn Man Sentenced for Recording Sleep Center Patients
11
Nassau County District Attorney. Syamaprasad Indictment Announcement
12
Northwell Health. Sleep Disorders Center
13
Northwell Health. STARS Rehabilitation – Great Neck