A Palm Beach County couple has sued a South Florida tech company alleging that two of its employees secretly watched them having sex remotely after convincing them to upgrade their home security system server.
“Cases, where technology is utilized to victimize people, are becoming more and more prevalent,” said Andrea Lewis, the couple's attorney. “Bad actors now have technologies at their disposal that they can use for nefarious intentions coupled with people who don't know they are being watched.”
Ask the Advisors, which sells home entertainment systems, movie theaters, sound systems, and other residential technology, was sued in Palm Beach County’s 15th Judicial Circuit on Feb. 22 after the couple discovered the activity log of their home security platform contained thousands of files when it should have been empty.
“Ask the Advisors technicians were at their home doing completely unrelated work on their thermostat and they suggested replacing their surveillance camera server because it was burnt out,” Lewis told the Florida Record. “They were out there within a matter of days installing it once they had received the order from my client.”
The technicians, Jeremy Lewis and Michael Reilly were arrested and have been criminally charged with felony video voyeurism.
"The punishment would depend on the number of counts that they actually end up going to trial on and it would also depend on each person's prior criminal record," Lewis said in an interview. "As far as I am aware, I don't believe that Michael Reilly has a prior criminal record. So, the sentence for him would be less."
Lewis, a convicted felon, had previously pled guilty to attempted first-degree murder, according to the complaint.
“When the police investigated the activity logs, they notated in the report that it appears the two technicians were communicating with one another when one person would find a video showing my client fully nude in the front or having sex because the other person would then log on quickly and go right to that camera,” Lewis said.
Although the couple has sued alleging vicarious liability, negligence, invasion of privacy, and negligent hiring, the defendants have asked to stay the civil suit until the outcome of the criminal case has been determined.
"The defendants have filed a motion claiming it would prejudice them in the criminal case if they have to participate in the civil case," Lewis added. “Obviously, we hope that the case is resolved soon because my clients have a very strong case and we feel confident they will receive a good resolution on it but to my knowledge the criminal case has not been set for trial yet.”