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Johns Hopkins Gynecologist Found Dead in His Home After Being Accused of Secretly Taping His Patients

By Christine Hsu | Update Date: Feb 20, 2013 12:45 PM EST

Police say that a shamed gynecologist who was recently fired for secretly videotaping and photographing his female patients was found dead in his Maryland home Monday morning after he committed suicide.

Dr. Nikita Levy, who was employed at Johns Hopkins Hospital for two decades, is suspected of secretly taping and taking pictures of his exposed patients. Police revealed on Tuesday that at least some of the images were taken with a small camera hidden in the top of a pen.

Police also said that nearly 100 women, fearing that Levy might have secretly videotaped or photographed them, had contacted authorities and some potential victims are also contemplating legal action, according to the Baltimore Sun.

Police are now treating the case as an open criminal investigation and are looking to see whether the images and recordings had been distributed.

The 54-year-old doctor was found dead by police who arrived at his home at 7am Monday morning. Police say that it is possible that the doctor may have committed suicide. Police would not reveal his cause of the doctor's death, but they said that neither a gun nor a knife was used.

Levy had been working as a doctor at Johns Hopkins East Baltimore Medical Center in their gynecology and obstetrics department. Last week, Levy's patients had received a latter notifying them that he will no longer be working at the hospital. However, many of his patients are furious that the letter they received did not mention anything about the allegations against him or that a co-worker had discovered Levy using personal recording devices to tape his exposed patients.

"I don't understand why they don't think it would be appropriate to tell people," Tasha Bynum, a former patient of Levy, told The Baltimore Sun. "Why are you protecting his situation? People need to know what's going on."

The university hospital where Levy worked has also opened a separate investigation.

"Any invasion of patient privacy is intolerable," Johns Hopkins spokesperson Kim Hoppe said in a statement, according to CBS News. "Words cannot express how deeply sorry we are for every patient whose privacy may have been violated."

According to CBS, Levy saw around 1,000 patients since getting his medical license in 1988. Police are asking all patients treating by Levy to come forward after the uncovered what they called an "extraordinary" amount of evidence at the doctor's Towson home, according to the Baltimore Sun.

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