A Brooklyn man who worked at a Nassau County sleep center has been indicted on felony charges after allegedly installing hidden cameras in bathroom smoke detectors to secretly record patients, including a child, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Sanjai Syamaprasad, 47, a former employee of the Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center in Manhasset, is accused of allegedly placing a disguised camera inside staff and patient bathrooms at the sleep center, as well as a public restroom at STARS Rehabilitation, which shares the same building.
According to Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly, the camera was camouflaged as a smoke detector and affixed to walls using Velcro discs. The devices are believed to have captured hundreds of individuals from July 2023 through April 2024.
Among those identified in the videos are five victims, including a child. Prosecutors said Syamaprasad would remove the camera after his shift, download the recordings onto a memory card, and allegedly view some of the footage on a work computer.
The alleged crimes came to light after Northwell Health referred the matter to the district attorney’s office in April 2024. Following an investigation, Syamaprasad was arrested on April 25. A search warrant executed at his Brooklyn residence led to the seizure of several electronic devices, including phones, an SD card reader, and three laptops.
Investigators later discovered that Syamaprasad allegedly discarded the camera and SD card in a CVS trash can in Brooklyn. The camera was recovered by a Nassau County Police detective from a dumpster behind the store.
A grand jury indicted Syamaprasad on five counts of Unlawful Surveillance in the Second Degree and two counts of Tampering with Physical Evidence, all class E felonies. He was arraigned before Judge Meryl Berkowitz, pleaded not guilty, and was released on his own recognizance. He is due back in court on June 12, 2025.
If convicted, he faces up four years in prison.
“These allegations are sickening and disturbing,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. “Sanjai Syamaprasad allegedly used hidden cameras secreted in smoke detectors to capture hundreds of videos of patients in bathrooms… 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.”