Lawsuit: Apartment Complex Has Installed 'Bugs'

WYFF4.com
Jun. 03, 2007

A Pendleton woman is suing her landlord, accusing the management company of violating her privacy by using sound-and-video surveillance equipment at her apartment compex.

Judy Johnson said that she and other residents of the Pendleton Garden Apartments no longer feel comfortable living there.

Johnson declined an on-camera interview with WYFF News 4, but her attorney said that she is "very upset about it. Very concerned.”

Charles Griffin said that Ambling Management is using a camera with a microphone to monitor activity at the apartment complex.

Griffin said that the main issue in the federal lawsuit is sound monitoring, as privacy laws generally prohibit using electronic devices to listen in on conversations unless at least one of the parties involved in a conversation agrees.

"Audio is the main thrust of the federal cause of action,” Griffin said, accusing Ambling of “endeavoring to intercept the oral communication of Ms. Johnson and other residents living at the apartment complex."

Griffin said that Johnson learned about the audio monitoring when she was at the management office one day.

"She was in the office one day and heard a car crank up,” Griffin said. “She inquired about how she could hear that.”

Griffin said that the office employees explained that cameras at the complex were monitoring the area.

Griffin said that an investigator he hired found a camera in an outside area. The camera was “smaller than a man's palm and very difficult to spot.”

There is no indication of cameras monitoring any activity inside any apartments, Griffin said.

Griffin said that the management posted a sign at the entrance to the complex warning about video surveillance at the complex several weeks after Johnson said she learned about the video and audio monitoring.

WYFF News 4 contacted Ambling Management, but a spokesperson declined an opportunity to comment on the case.

Griffin said he is hoping to turn Johnson’s case into a class-action lawsuit, asking for $100 per day for the privacy violation or $10,000, whichever is greater.