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At the end of March, a prominent Upper East Side psychologist was arrested after a patient discovered a surveillance camera inside a lightbulb in the bathroom. But earlier this month prosecutors dropped the felony charge of unlawful surveillance against Dr. Robert Reiner, an NYU psychologist who has appeared as a medical expert on MTV and talk shows. It turns out that the camera, which was not wired to a monitor, was unwittingly put in the outlet by a contractor Reiner hired to do some work at the office; Reiner insists he used it at his Westchester home to monitor his kids on the trampoline, and that he brought the inoperative camera into work because he needed the code number on the camera to order a new one.
Now he's filing a $5 million lawsuit against the city because he says the media attention has ruined his career: his TV appearances have stopped, a book that was 95 percent complete was put on hold by the publisher, and other medical professionals stopped referring patients to Reiner. He tells the Daily News, "This has been a nightmare... They say it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 20 minutes to destroy it." Also, his kids were teased at school.
His lawyer says Reiner's office was full of patients when officers seized the practice's computers, which held patients' confidential records: "When the NYPD does not properly investigate the facts and follow their own procedures, and they rush to judgment, it becomes a very dangerous situation." Speaking to the Journal News, Reiner says, "The stupid thing was one hour of investigation. If this was federal, it never would have happened this way. They investigate first. Everybody who knows me knows it didn't happen because everybody knew that I bought this thing for the backyard of my house. The kids helped me set it up."
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the consequences of trial by media. if he is truly not guilty, this is a damn shame.
damn that sucks, sounds like the guy is legit. damage already done though, stupid media.
It's not funny, but it's a sure thing that we'll see something like it on Law & Order.
the NYPD doesn't care about the suit,
it's not coming out of their budget or pockets.
if there's a way to sue the detectives personally, that would be the only way and just end.
He bought a camera to monitor his kids at home but it ended up in a light bulb in the bathroom?
It's really, really weird, imo.. and while I don't really believe the story, I do know that truth can be stranger than fiction.
The camera is built into a non-working light bulb. The Dr claims that he uses it at his house to monitor his kids, but his kids know about it (why did he need a disguised camera, then? I dunno).
The Dr claims he needed to order a new receiver, and that he brought the camera into the office to do this , because he needed the "code number" off the camera (why not just write it down? and no internet at home?).
Next up.. a contractor is working at night, and needs a light bulb. He doesn't have one, but happens to notice the Dr's light bulb/camera, and apparently decides that no one would miss that bulb, so he installs it. One would assume that he notices it doesn't work, but apparently he just leaves it there anyway, tells no one, and no one else bothers to fix the bulb.
Patient notices it, calls police. etc etc.
from the article, it sounds like the bulb worked, but the camera didn't. so it's plausible.. but still an odd story.
I did a little bit of searching before posting the comment and did not find any light bulb camera that also had a working bulb. I'd think the camera would be useless in such a device.
AFAICT, the camera worked, but because there was no receiving station for the video (this is what the Dr claims he was ordering), it wasn't really doing anything.
Unwittingly wha?
Come on, people. This is not a fanny cam. It's a nanny cam.
A likely story! Pshaw!
And why does he look so much like Al Pacino?
"The kids helped me set it up."
Filthy little pervert.