flash: Man Sues Over Sperm Bank Hidden Camera – July 20, 2006

Claiming that he found a video camera hidden in the ceiling of a sperm bank’s "donation room," a Los Angeles man is suing the firm for negligence and emotional distress. Ken Rigberg, 27, charges that he discovered the pinhole camera during a June 2005 visit to Pasadena’s Pacific Reproductive Services. According to Rigberg’s Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, a copy of which you’ll find below, he "noticed an unusual hole in the ceiling tile" of a private donation room, where he had just finished masturbating into a cup. Upon inspection, Rigberg realized that "there was a hidden surveillance camera on top of the ceiling tile, with the lens of the camera positioned to…capture the activity within the private donor room." Rigberg is described in the lawsuit as a "regular sperm donor" who went to Pacific "to provide an honorable and essential benefit to his community." According to Pacific’s web site, it pays men $100 per donation, and that most donors contribute "once or twice weekly over a minimum one-year period or 65 donations." Rigberg’s attorney, S. Edmond El Dabe, provided TSG with a police photograph of the seized ceiling cam equipment, an image he received from Pacific’s insurance carrier. El Dabe said Pasadena cops have been unable to determine who placed the video camera in the donation room ceiling. The lawsuit, which was filed in late-May and does not specify monetary damages, asserts that Rigberg has, among other things, suffered fear, shame, humiliation, and chagrin as a result of discovering the surveillance gadget. An "emotionally traumatized" Rigberg, who had been visiting Pacific for more than a year, "no longer donates sperm, as he fears future illegal surveillance of his private acts," the complaint notes.