Lance Parks, formerly of J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, faces charges including criminal invasion of privacy, with police saying a search of his home uncovered AI-manipulated images of juveniles.
A doctor has been arrested in West Virginia over allegations that he concealed recording devices in staff bathrooms at a hospital where he previously worked, with police saying the investigation later uncovered computer-generated child sexual abuse material at his home.
Lance Parks faces charges including criminal invasion of privacy and distribution and exhibiting computer-generated child pornography, according to police. The investigation remains active.
The case began on 26 June, when employees at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown discovered a recording device hidden underneath a sink in a staff bathroom, police said. Investigators concluded that Parks, who had previously worked at the hospital, was responsible for placing it there. According to a news release from the Monongalia County Prosecuting Attorney, the device held footage of eight hospital employees who had been recorded partially undressed without their knowledge.
A second device was found four days later, police said, when staff responding to reports of a blocked pipe discovered it inside a toilet in a non-public staff bathroom.
Investigators subsequently executed a search warrant at Parks’ home, seizing several computers and digital devices. Police said files were found containing images of juvenile females that appeared to have been downloaded from social media and photo-sharing sites, along with numerous computer-generated images in which artificial intelligence had been used to alter the original photographs to make the juveniles depicted appear nude.
Police, the Monongalia County Prosecuting Office and Ruby Memorial Hospital are working together to notify those affected.
A spokesperson for West Virginia University hospitals, in a statement issued on behalf of Ruby Memorial, described the case as “tremendously traumatic and disturbing for our employees” and said the hospital remained committed to providing a safe workplace. The statement added that the conduct of a single individual would not define the work of the thousands of staff who care for patients there every day.
Bart Mazer, who was visiting a patient at the hospital on Thursday, said it was shameful for a physician entrusted with the public good to abuse that position for personal ends.
