Chiropractor Scott Kline was back at work Thursday, days after facing a charge of photographing an unsuspecting nude person for allegedly putting a hidden spy camera in the public bathroom of his office in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Video obtained by NBC10 Boston shows the black plastic hook inside a public bathroom at Kline's practice, Back on Track, that a patient noticed had a small camera, according to investigators. Police confiscated the camera and other investigated potential digital evidence.
A police report shows that Kline admitted to putting the camera in the room, but he's denied it recorded anything. His attorney says it was never powered on.
"The hook that was placed in the bathroom was just being used as a hook, and again, all of the evidence that was went through — four hard drives, four computers, I believe it was 2 or 3 different iPhone — everything actually shows that there is nothing corroborating it," attorney Paul Moraski said.
According to a police report, investigators found an extensive pornography collection, hundreds of homemade images and videos of many women in different stages of undress and involved in sexual activity — some appearing to have been taken in the office. Police said these appeared to be consensual encounters.
The man who found the camera shared the video he took with NBC10 Boston, saying he feels "very violated" and "disturbed."
"As I was going to the bathroom, I noticed a hook that was very – right where the top of the toilet meets the wall," the man said. "And it was right next to it, holding a brush. And I was like, 'That looks very odd.'"
He explains the shock he felt when he realized what it was.
"You can see the actual dot where the camera is and then my heart just dropped," said the man, who wanted to stay anonymous.
Kline worked on the man's back, he said, but when he spotted the device, he told his parents.
When father of the patient who shot the video and another man confronted Kline about it, Kline said, "please, please don't do anything. I have a family," and "how can we fix this situation? What can we do to make it right?" one of the men recalled to investigators, according to the police report.
One of the people who'd seen the video later received a text from Kline, according to the report, in which the chiropractor said the hook was only used as a hook, without "power or the ability to stream or save anything so not illegal." The text went on to say, "I'm not sure your intentions? But if u are trying to get me to pay u ? that will not happen bc I as [sic] not participating in anything bad."
When police later searched the office, they found a velcro strip on the wall in the bathhoom where the camera was discovered, but no hook or camera. A police dog indicated the strip either han SD card present or recently did, according to the report.
"I don't want this to happen to anyone else, you know what I mean? I don't want anyone to go to the chiropractor and worry about not feeling safe," the man who found the camera told NBC10 Boston.
A subsequent search uncovered in a locked drawer a spy camera disgussed as a coat hook that appeared similar to the one from the video given to police, along with hard drives and flash drives that had "an extensive pornography collection as well as some work related material," according to the report. "There were hundreds of homemade images aand videos of many women in different stages of undress and involved in sexual activity. Kline can be seen in some of these photos as well."
The images and videos on the drives were not seized because they "were determined to be consensual, and nothing of evidentiary value was located on them," the report said.
Kline has been texting clients all day, several told NBC10 Boston, calling the charges against him false accusations and theories.
One of Kline's longtime patients, Alex Schulte, said she thinks "we deserve answers."
Schulte said she's torn because, while the allegations are disturbing, she's having a hard time believing her chiropractor would do something like this.
"He's never been inappropriate or anything like that," she said. "He jokes, but never anything like inappropriate or fresh or anything like that."
According to the police report, Kline told police he got rid of the camera "by stomping on it and flushing it down the toilet." But police said they seized a camera matching its description in his office.
Kline was released on $10,000 bail and ordered to stay away from the patient who found the camera. But Kline is allowed to keep practicing.
He's due back in court Aug. 29 for a pretrial conference.
According to investigators, the patient called Peabody police on Friday and said he noticed the black plastic coat hook next to the toilet tank in the bathroom. When he took a closer look, he saw a blue light and noticed what he believed was a hidden spy camera. The patient recorded images of the camera on his cellphone, which he shared with police.
In a brief exchange Wednesday night, Kline denied the allegation. He didn't have much to say to NBC10 Boston's cameras as he left the office in Peabody, saying initially, "No comment, but thank you for waiting around," and adding, "I had a lot of work to do."
But when asked, he denied the allegations.
Investigators are asking anyone who thinks they may have been photographed inside the bathroom to come forward with any information they can provide
