Suspicious Colleague Reported Levy to Hopkins Officials, Dean Says

Reprinted from the Baltimore Sunspot

By Scott Dance, The Baltimore Sun 12:58 p.m. EST, February 27, 2013

A female colleague of Johns Hopkins gynecologist Dr. Nikita Levy had grown suspicious of the doctor, noticing he wore a pen around his neck while examining patients, when she told Hopkins officials she believed he was secretly recording the women, according to a letter a top Hopkins official sent to victim advocates.

When security staff visited Levy’s office to question him about the pen, they found similar devices in his office and on his person, Hopkins Medicine Dean Dr. Paul B. Rothman wrote. The interview was suspended and Levy voluntarily gave up the recording devices, Rothman wrote.

The letter provides new details into what spurred the ongoing investigation into Levy, and ultimately, his death. Amid accusations he secretly captured videos and photos of his patients, Levy was found dead of an apparent suicide Feb. 18.

Hopkins officials said at that time they had received the tip two weeks earlier, on Feb. 4. Security then interviewed Levy and seized the devices Feb. 5, after which Levy was barred from contact with patients, Rothman wrote in the letter to the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center and law firm Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White.

Police and Hopkins officials have been reluctant to reveal further details on the investigation, saying it is still considered an ongoing criminal inquiry. In a letter sent Feb. 11, Hopkins officials notified Levy’s patients he was no longer practicing at the East Baltimore clinic where he had worked. A second letter sent Feb. 18 sketched out the allegations against Levy.

Rothman’s letter was in response to calls from the victims’ center and law firm for Hopkins officials and police to reveal more details about the case to calm patients’ fears that they may have been secretly recorded. Aside from a small number of patients who have already been notified, it has not been determined which or how many women are identifiable in evidence police have gathered, Rothman wrote, repeating previous statements from Hopkins officials.

Rothman offered sympathy to Levy’s patients and pledged to help police notify those who are identified in any images or video. He said Hopkins officials don’t know what Levy did with the images or videos.

“We are terribly sorry this has happened and for how the patients of Dr. Levy must be feeling,” Rothman wrote. “The last few days have been difficult and trying ones for all of us.”