Former Northwell Health sleep clinician Sanjai Syamaprasad admitted to secretly recording people since 2005, Nassau prosecutors say

The Brooklyn man convicted of spying on patients in the bathrooms at the Northwell Sleep Disorders Center in Manhasset using hidden cameras rigged into smoke detectors, admitted to probation officials that he had been secretly recording people since 2005, Nassau prosecutors said Tuesday.

Sanjai Syamaprasad, 48, pleaded guilty in July to five counts of unlawful surveillance between July 2023 and April 2024. He was caught by a co-worker watching his secret video on his laptop at work, officials said.

After a Northwell employee confronted him about the recordings, he went home and destroyed several of his electronic storage devices and his laptop, prosecutors said.

He also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence.

The case has launched multiple lawsuits against Northwell and Syamaprasad with many of the patients uncertain if they had been recorded, according to Konstantin Yelisavetskiy, an attorney with Slater Slater and Schulman who represents 900 plaintiffs, 120 of them children.

Prosecutors said that Syamaprasad recorded both adults and at least one child as they changed or went to the bathroom in the clinic.

Nassau Supreme Court Justice Meryl Berkowitz initially agreed to a no-jail sentence, but reversed her decision and sentenced him to 6 months behind bars in November.

At Tuesday’s hearing to determine if he would have to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said that Syamaprasad had admitted that he had been engaging in voyeuristic behavior for 20 years, not always at the Northwell facility.

Nassau prosecutor Heather J. Kalachman, who asked the judge to designate the former sleep technician a Level 3, the highest level, said that Syamaprasad told probation officials that his voyeuristic habit began secretly recording women in bikinis at the beach.

He also admitted to recording himself having sex at other medical clinics and recording himself placing sensors on female patients bare chests.

Although Level 3 is usually reserved for violent sexual offenders, Kalachman said he should be given the lifetime sex offender designation given the fact that he recorded children, a "hypersexual disorder" diagnosis from one doctor and his history that shows a "lack of sexual impulse control."

Defense attorneys Jennifer Peters and Julie Rendelman denied that their client had been properly diagnosed with any disorder and said he had been receiving treatment leading up to his incarceration.

"Other than watching pornography, which is not a criminal offense, he has not reoffended," Rendelman told the judge. "This is a battle that he is fighting and he has been successful."

The defense attorneys also said that Syamaprasad had no attraction to children, nor a desire to record them in the Northwell bathrooms.

"There is no indication that Mr. Syamaprasad intended to have children as his victims," Peters told the court. "He has no attraction to children."

Rendelman also told the judge that her client’s life had been repeatedly threatened by another inmate in the Nassau County jail and asked that he be moved to a different unit.

Northwell has sent letters to patients of the sleep clinic informing them of the breach in policy and fired Syamaprasad. His state sleep technician license was also revoked.

"We are deeply disturbed by the actions of a Sanjai Syamaprasad, who betrayed the trust of patients and his co-workers by secretly engaging in unauthorized criminal conduct," Northwell spokeswoman Barbara Osborn said in a statement. "This former employee’s actions were unacceptable and never tolerated at Northwell."

She said that the medical company has fully cooperated with authorities.

The judge did not rule on Syamaprasad’s sex offender status on Tuesday and adjourned the hearing until Thursday.