Info Released About How Record Hopkins Settlement Will Be Distributed
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- We're learning new information about how money will be divided among thousands of patients whose gynecologist secretly recorded them. Johns Hopkins' insurance will pay the record $190 million settlement.
Mike Hellgren has more.
Renee Pliante will never forget how she felt when she learned the gynecologist she'd seen for years, Dr. Nikita Levy, may have secretly recorded her visits.
"It made me cringe and I grabbed myself and I felt really slimy and I felt dirty," Pliante said. "It felt nasty just to know that he would do something like that."
Another former patient, Jessica Allen, credits Dr. Levy with saving her life---but she now has one question every time she walks into an appointment.
"I just ask, `Am I being videotaped?' I think it's a fair question," Allen said.
Both women have real concerns about the record $190 million settlement Johns Hopkins will pay victims.
Hopkins ran the East Baltimore Medical Center where Levy practiced for 25 years. Police say he used a pen camera to record exams.
"When it all boils down, they know exactly how much the victims are going to get and it's not going to be much," Allen said.
She wonders how much will be left after experts are hired to interview former patients and legal fees are paid.
"There are numerous amounts of lawyers who have to get a cut of this," she said.
"Each of the plaintiffs will be placed in one of four categories for damages. Dollar assessments will be assigned to each and every category," said Jonathan Schochor, the lead lawyer for the plaintiffs.
Both women say it's not about money, it's about fairness---and, for Pliante, healing the wounds of distrust.
"I really don't want to see another gynecologist. I honestly don't," she said. "The more I talk about it, the better I get with it. That's like seeking therapy to me."
A Johns Hopkins representative says it is protocol to have a chaperone in the room during gynecological exams.
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