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An upstate New York nurse has been forced to give up her license after she was caught taking explicit photos and videos of unconscious patients at work.
27-year-old Kristen Johnson was initially arrested back in May 2015 after several of her former co-workers at State University of New York Upstate Medical Hospital told authorities that she had been sending them creepy photos of unconscious patients on the job.
According to the New York Daily News, on one particular occasion, Johnson was accused of using her iPhone to take pictures of a patient’s penis when she was supposed to be working.
The sick nurse also took a video of a female patient’s rectum and sent the recording to another nurse without the woman’s knowledge.
“Despite what certain people seem to think, it is a crime in the state of New York to view, broadcast or record images of another person's intimate body parts, surreptitiously,” District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said, according to Syracuse.com.
Because all of these patients were unconscious when Johnson filmed them or took photos of their private parts with her iPhone, they had no idea they had even been violated until the investigation began.
The disturbing photos and videos that Johnson took while working as a nurse were found on her laptop, though they were initially taken on her iPhone.
Although Johnson was originally arrested on felony unlawful surveillance charges, she has since pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of disseminating unlawful surveillance.
As part of the deal she struck with authorities, Johnson has agreed to give up her nursing license and she will remain on probation for three years.
