7-16-2009 Washington:A former employee has filed a lawsuit against the estate of a once-prominent Seattle psychologist accused of hiding a video camera in his office bathroom.
Stuart Greenberg was rising to the top of his profession when, on July 3, 2007, police arrived at his North Seattle home after an employee -- the woman now suing him -- allegedly found the video camera fixed in the bathroom to record people using the facilities.
Three weeks later, Greenberg was dead by his own hand. Now, according to the civil suit filed earlier this month in King County Superior Court, the woman is seeking a piece of his estate.
In the civil suit, the woman alleges Greenberg confessed to voyeurism sometime after the investigation was launched. She also contends she was fired after discovering the camera, which was allegedly wired to his house located next door to his clinic.
At 59, Greenberg had served as president of the American Board of Forensic Psychology and consulted for the Seattle Archdiocese. He'd resigned from the University of Washington Department of Psychology days before he took an overdose of pills in a Renton hotel.
"What happened to him, what darkness in his life and circumstances drove him to the events that led to his suicide, I don't know," friend and colleague David Nichols said at the time. "I doubt that he did, either.
"But I do know that the cause of his death was shame -- the shame of a decent man whose video invasions of another's privacy were as puzzling, alien and offensive to him as they were known to be out of character by those who knew him to be a much better man."
Prosecutors had not filed charges against Greenberg at the time of his death, though state regulators revoked his license the week before.
In the recent complaint, the plaintiff said she'd been working for Greenberg for just three months when she discovered the camera at the 24th Avenue East office. Through means not clear in court documents, she came to know that the camera was connected to a television and VCR in his home.
Police searched Greenberg's home, placing him under arrest following the search. The plaintiff contends that Greenberg admitted to taping her and two other women as they used the restroom.
Contacted for comment, attorneys representing Greenberg's estate declined to do so. No response has yet been filed with the court. ..Source.. by LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
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