For a new mother who works at DeSales University in Center Valley, Penn., the simple act of pumping breastmilk at work led to extreme distress when she realized that someone had installed a camera in the ceiling of her office.
On May 29, the woman (who has not been identified) had shut the door to her office and taken off her shirt to pump when she "heard a noise, causing he [sic] to look up at a small hole in the ceiling tile directly above her and viewed a camera lens in the tile hole," according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Huffington Post.
The complaint states that, after noticing the camera and leaving her office, the employee was "confronted by Desales [sic] University employee John Bednarik exiting the officer [sic] directly next to her[s]."
Bednarik -- a 33-year-old who has since been fired from his position as director of Campus Environment at DeSales, according to Lehighvalleylive.com -- "admitted" to police "that he had created the small hole in the tile in [his colleague's office] to allow viewing and recording of her while partially nude, for the purpose of his own sexual arousal and gratification," the complaint says. Upper Saucon Valley police later found video of the woman pumping on the camera.
The police complaint notes that the victim had "a reasonable expectation of privacy" in her office. Bednarik has been charged with invasion of privacy (a misdemeanor) and will have a preliminary hearing on June 27. He is out on $10,000 unsecured bail and the condition that he has "no contact whatsoever with the victim."
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires employers to provide eligible workers with "a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used ... to express breast milk," as well as "a reasonable break time ... each time such employee has need to express the milk." DeSales spokesman Tom McNamara told Lehighvalleylive.com that DeSales has private, on-site lactation rooms available for employees.