Woman sues former Rutgers professor accused of filming bathrooms in workplace

A woman who works at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has sued a former professor, who has been accused of recording her and more than two dozen others over a period of nine months, according to NJ Advance Media. 

The Daily Targum reported in February that James Goydos, a former director of the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, was charged on 160 counts of crimes, including recording people in various states of undress. These people were allegedly either filmed or photographed in a bathroom at the workplace. 

The total list of charges include 160 counts of invasion of privacy, official misconduct, burglary, computer theft, impersonation, wiretapping, falsely implicating another, coercion, hindering, possession of an assault rifle and possession of a prohibited device. 

According to the article from NJ Advance Media, the woman, who has not been identified, filed a class action complaint on March 22 in the Middlesex County Superior Court, but an additional amended version was filed three days ago on April 1. 

In the suit, the woman, who had previously worked with Goydos and said she had been filmed in a bathroom, accused him of "intentional infliction of emotional distress" and "negligence." The claim also said that the individuals filmed were subject to “mental anguish, embarrassment and severe emotional distress."

Representing the woman is Steve Fearon, who is an attorney of the New York-based law firm Squitieri and Fearon. He said his firm received calls from others on the case, and he is currently investigating to determine how many of the ones who came forward were on camera.

 “We look forward to pursuing these claims for women who reasonably expected privacy and a safe space when they used the women’s room at Rutgers, but instead were recorded by Dr. Goydos,” his firm said in a statement. 

Goydos was initially arrested in March 2018 and charged with having an unregistered and unlicensed assault rifle after police searched his East Brunswick home, which prompted the University to put him on leave, the Targum reported. 

Last December, he resigned from his tenured position, where he was earning $437,000, after an indictment was returned from the grand jury. 

According to a previous indictment, he was also accused of entering four people’s offices at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in 2016, and stealing their information to impersonate them in a “scheme to defraud” to “benefit for himself or another, or to injure or defraud another."

Goydos maintains his innocence, though, and said he was framed by officials at the institute for whistle-blowing against grant fraud, claiming that the center was aiming to earn more money at the expensive of the care of patients, the Targum reported in a follow-up article on April 2. 

He said that the investigation on him initially began under the lead of Florham Park law practice Saiber, which allegedly hired retired FBI agents to conduct investigatory interviews and ordered the search and seizure of electronic records.

“Rutgers doesn’t comment on pending litigation, though we will certainly indicate that the record speaks for itself and that we will defend ourselves against these claims,” said Peter McDonough Jr., a spokesman for Rutgers, in a statement on the allegations.

Goydos is expected to return to court on May 20, 2019 to face criminal charges against him.