Home / Sexual Abuse Lawsuits / Northwell Sleep Center
You went to a sleep center or a rehab facility at your most vulnerable — to change clothes, to shower, to be monitored overnight, to trust the people treating you. A former employee hid cameras disguised as smoke detectors inside the bathrooms. He has pleaded guilty. Roughly 250 lawsuits now ask a different question: how did a major health system not notice for two years?
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A lawsuit is never the urgent step. You are. The RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential and staffed 24 hours a day at 1–800–656–4673, with online chat at hotline.rainn.org . If you are in crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by calling or texting 988.
If a child is being abused now, report to the NCMEC CyberTipline at 1–800–843–5678 or your local child protective services. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911. Where you safely can, keep letters, records, names and dates — but your safety and your health come first, always.
Without confirmation, people assume they have nothing to bring.
These are negligence and privacy claims against the institution. The harm flows from the reasonable belief that you were recorded undressed in a place you were entitled to absolute privacy — and courts have long recognised that as a real, compensable injury.
The guilty plea makes it feel like the matter is closed.
A criminal conviction does not compensate anyone. The civil cases ask how a device disguised as a smoke detector operated in patient bathrooms inside a major health system for roughly two years.
People treat the notification list as definitive.
If you attended the Sleep Disorders Center or STARS Rehab during the affected period, your situation can still be reviewed whether or not a letter reached you.
The nature of the intrusion is exactly what keeps people from talking about it.
The first conversation is about dates and facilities, not about what you were doing in that room. Roughly 250 people have already filed, and these cases are handled with that in mind.
— What happened
Between roughly 2022 and April 2024, a former Northwell Health employee, Sanjai Syamaprasad, is alleged to have secretly installed hidden cameras disguised as smoke detectors inside bathrooms at the Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center and the Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Services (STARS) facility on Long Island. Patients used those bathrooms to change into sleepwear before overnight studies, to shower, and to prepare for therapy sessions. He has since pleaded guilty to the secret recordings.
After the discovery, Northwell Health notified more than 13,000 patients who may have been affected. Approximately 250 civil lawsuits have been filed in Nassau County Supreme Court, alleging that Northwell failed to supervise its employee and failed to protect the confidentiality and privacy of the people in its care. Northwell has said it reported the conduct to the District Attorney and cooperated with the prosecution.
Victims include patients, staff and visitors — adults and, in some cases, minors. Anyone who used the affected bathrooms during the recording period may have been captured, whether or not they ever received a notification letter.
The affected group is wider than the notification list. If any of these describe you, a free review is worth the two minutes it takes.
Keep it. That letter identifies you as among those who may have been affected, and it is evidence.
Roughly 2022 through April 2024 at the Sleep Disorders Center or STARS Rehab — even if no letter reached you.
People who accompanied patients and used the same facilities fall inside the affected group.
Staff who used the affected bathrooms are in the same position as patients for these purposes.
Parents and guardians can pursue claims on behalf of minors, and those claims carry additional privacy protections.
That is true of nearly everyone in this litigation. It does not affect eligibility to have the claim reviewed.
You do not have to prove you appear on a recording. These are negligence and privacy-violation claims against the institution, and courts have long recognised that voyeurism victims suffer real, compensable injury where specific recordings cannot be individually matched to a person.
The injury here is the violation itself — and what it did to your ability to feel safe in a medical setting.
Roughly 250 claims are already moving in Nassau County Supreme Court. Where a large group of claims is litigated together, the discovery, the expert work and the negotiating power develop collectively — and claimants who arrive after that is settled have less influence over it.
New York deadlines apply to these claims and are not the same as the extended windows that exist for childhood sexual abuse. That makes timing a more immediate question here than on most of the other claims we review.
— What happens next
Nothing happens that you do not agree to, and you decide what to share and when.
Which facility, roughly when you attended, and whether you received a letter. Nothing more. Two minutes, free, no obligation.
Usually within a day. You decide what to share and when, and you can stop at any point without explaining why.
Northwell’s notification records, appointment and treatment records, the criminal file and the facility’s own internal reports — obtained through litigation.
Filed in Nassau County Supreme Court alongside roughly 250 existing claims, with privacy protections sought where appropriate.
— The no-fee promise
Participating firms take these cases on contingency. The fee is a percentage of any recovery. If there is no recovery, no attorney fee is owed.
No retainer. No hourly billing. No invoice arriving while you are already paying for therapy. Cost should never be the reason a survivor never finds out what their options were.
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What Direct2Attorney is
A legal marketing and referral service. We check whether your situation matches what participating law firms are looking for, and connect you with one of them if it does.
What Direct2Attorney is not
— Filing deadlines
New York deadlines apply to these claims, and they are not the extended windows that exist for childhood sexual abuse. Privacy, negligence and emotional-distress claims run on their own, considerably shorter clocks — which is why the roughly 250 filed cases moved quickly after the April 2024 discovery.
Select your state
Arriving after the existing wave has shaped discovery and negotiation is a strategic cost as well as a legal one.
Because these rules have moved so much in recent years, the answer people assume is almost always wrong — and it is wrong in both directions. It costs nothing to have someone check the state where it happened.
This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a calculation of your deadline. Filing deadlines are set by state law, differ by claim type and defendant, change when legislatures amend them, and can be shortened or extended by facts specific to your situation. Nothing on this page tells you whether your claim is timely. Only an attorney licensed in your state can determine the deadline that applies to you. If a deadline passes, a claim is usually barred permanently regardless of its merits, so the safer course is always to ask early.
These claims move on ordinary New York deadlines, not extended abuse windows. Finding out takes about two minutes and costs nothing.
Potentially, yes. The letter identifies you as among those who may have been affected. You do not need to have seen a camera or a recording — the claims centre on Northwell’s failure to protect patient privacy and the reasonable distress that failure caused.
No. If you attended the Sleep Disorders Center or STARS Rehab during the affected period, your situation can still be reviewed. Notification lists are not always complete.
The criminal case punished the individual. The civil cases ask how a major health system allowed hidden devices to operate in patient bathrooms for roughly two years — and they compensate the people harmed, which a criminal case does not do.
Yes. Parents and guardians can pursue claims on behalf of minors, and claims involving minors are treated with particular seriousness and additional privacy protections. Settlements for a minor generally require court approval.
No. The claim does not turn on that and nobody asks. The first conversation is about which facility you attended and roughly when.
No. Staff who used the affected bathrooms are in the same position as patients for the purposes of these privacy and negligence claims.
Nothing. The review is free and confidential with no obligation. If a participating law firm takes the case, it will normally work on contingency, meaning the fee comes out of any recovery and no attorney fee is owed if there is no recovery.
Ask it on the call. The review is free, and there is no obligation to move forward.
— News & updates
The story so far In late 2024, a Northwell Health Sleep Disorders Center employee allegedly planted hidden cameras in patient
The Northwell Sleep Disorders Lawsuit has rocked New York. Over 250 patients, staff, and visitors claim hidden cameras recorded them
In 2024, hidden cameras were allegedly found in patient areas at Northwell Health’s Sleep Disorders Center and STARS Rehab on
