A nurse from upstate New York has surrendered her medical license after pleading guilty to taking a snapshot of an unconscious patient's penis with her iPhone.
The surrendering of the license comes as part of a plea deal in which she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disseminating of unlawful surveillance photos.
According to court documents, Kristen Johnson, 27, was found guilty of disseminating unlawful surveillance photos on at least two occasions. The first came March 2, 2014, when she used her iPhone 5 to take a video of another nurse cleaning an incapacitated female patient's gastrointestinal blood clot. The second came several months later, Aug. 4, when Johnson used the same phone to photograph an incapacitated male patient's genitals.
The investigation into the acts began when Johnson's co-workers at Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse complained that she captured images of two patients and sent them via text message. Acting off that tip, police seized her computer and found the photo and video stored within.
Records indicate that one co-worker told police that Johnson pointed her phone at her while she was cleaning the blood before sending the video to the other nurse's phone.
Overall, the investigation lasted nine months and culminated in an arrest in May 2015. Johnson was charged with two counts of felony second-degree unlawful surveillance and one count of second-degree disseminating unlawful surveillance, a felony. Appearing in court in November, she plead guilty to charges and declined to argue against allegations that she is morally unfit for practice.
"Kristen A. Johnson; Registered Professional Nurse; Fulton, NY 13069; Lic. No. 623118; Cal. No. 28576; Application to surrender license granted. Summary: Licensee did not contest the charge of moral unfitness in the practice," the New York State Education Department's Board of Regents announced.
Her guilty plea reduced the initial felony charge, allowing her to serve three years probation instead.
At the time of her arrest, Darryl Geddes, an Upstate University Hospital spokesman, stated that Johnson was no longer working for the hospital. It's unclear if she will be able to get her license once her three year probation is over. Even if she does, it's unlikely that she will be allowed to work at Upstate University Hospital again.
