$190 Million Settlement for 8,000+ Patients Secretly Recorded by Johns Hopkins Gynecologist

For nearly 25 years, Dr. Nikita Levy worked as an OB-GYN within the Johns Hopkins Health System. In February 2013, a colleague reported suspicious behavior, and the hospital terminated him after discovering he had worn a pen-shaped camera during pelvic examinations. Police subsequently recovered 10 file servers containing video and photographic recordings of patients. Levy died by suicide less than two weeks after his termination, leaving more than 8,000 women to reckon with what had been done to them without their knowledge or consent.

The scope of the violation was enormous. Patients ranged across years of care at a world-renowned institution they had trusted entirely. Most recordings did not capture faces, which complicated individual identification but did nothing to diminish the harm: thousands of women who had sought routine gynecological care learned they had been filmed during some of the most private moments of their medical lives. No criminal charges could be filed against Levy, and Johns Hopkins faced a civil class action as the only available forum for accountability.

A coordinated team of eight plaintiff-side firms formed a Steering Committee to manage the class claims. The Cochran Firm, Washington, D.C. was one of those eight firms. Lead counsel Jonathan Schochor of Schochor, Federico and Staton P.A. chaired the committee, which litigated the case in Baltimore City Circuit Court before Judge Sylvester B. Cox.

On July 21, 2014, a $190 million class-action settlement was announced. Judge Cox held a fairness hearing and approved the settlement on September 19, 2014. Schochor described the result as potentially the highest amount of compensation ever paid in a single-perpetrator sexual abuse case in the United States. As part of the resolution, all recordings were ordered to be destroyed.

The $190 million settlement stood as approved with no appellate reduction reported in court records.