KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - According to documents filed by the Clay County Prosecutor’s Office, a former hospital employee will soon be sentenced after pleading guilty to invasion of privacy.

The felony conviction of 40-year-old Gabriel Vanriette of Lawrence, Kansas, stems from incidents that took place on Sept. 13 and 14, 2023.

The Crime

Court documents detail that on Sept. 14, officers with the North Kansas City Police Department (NKCPD) were dispatched to the North Kansas City Hospital (NKCH).

A charge nurse reported finding what she first thought was a black ink pen in the emergency department’s staff locker room. When she looked at it closer, she saw it had a camera lens that was pointed toward the toilet. Inside, the device contained a microSD card.

The documents note that only employees with ID cards can scan and enter the restricted area where the locker room is located.

When investigators reviewed the footage on the microSD card, they found two video files.

The first file showed an empty bathroom and someone’s hand moving the camera. The second showed a hand moving the device, and the reflection of a white man with “brownish hair and wearing a bluish green scrub top” in a bathroom mirror. Approximately ten minutes after that, a victim was recorded using the bathroom before the video suddenly stopped.

When investigators returned to the hospital, they were given surveillance footage from a camera in the hallway outside the staff locker room and a list of the keycard swipes made around the time the camera was placed.

Using the keycard report, NKCPD determined that Vanriette’s keycard had been used to enter the staff locker room 15 times during his 12-hour shift on Sept. 14. Each time, he was in the room for less than one minute before leaving.

The report states that although Vanriette did not have a locker in that particular locker room, he was an NKCH respiratory therapist who wore blue-green scrubs.

The Investigation

On Sept. 18, 2023, Vanriette was questioned in the hospital’s security office. He was not under arrest at that time and was allowed to leave at any time.

Investigators asked Vanriette about his activity in the locker room on Sept. 14, and he reportedly said he had used it “probably a few” times that day, and that his usage depended on where he was in the hospital on any given day.

He then explained that on that particular day, “he and his wife were sick with food poisoning, so he was in and out of the bathroom a lot.”

Investigators reportedly told Vanriette that his use of the locker room lined up with the timestamps on the recording device’s files. They asked if he had seen the pen-like device before, to which he responded “Not particularly.”

He denied having ever purchased a pen like that or knowing anyone with one but consented to have his phone searched, which yielded nothing.

On Sept. 19, the pen and its microSD card were turned over to the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) to be analyzed.

Three days later, on Sept. 22, RCFL notified NKC investigators that eight files recorded on Sept. 13 and Sept. 14 had been deleted from the device, showing seven additional victims, all of whom were confirmed NKCH employees. Screenshots from the deleted video files also reportedly showed Vanriette’s face and his name badge several times.

In October, the victims were interviewed. Three recalled seeing a black pen in the bathroom, and all seven indicated they wished to pursue prosecution of the suspect.

Conviction

On Dec. 14, 2023, Vanriette was charged with one count of felony invasion of privacy.

Nearly a year and a half after the crime was committed, on Feb. 27, 2025, Vanriette filed a plea agreement. According to the agreement, he will enter a guilty plea in exchange for a recommended three-year sentence in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

His sentencing trial is scheduled for Friday, May 30, 2025, in the Clay County Courthouse.

“We are aware of the guilty plea by this former employee and have supported the prosecution of this matter. At sentencing, we would like to see the judge assess the maximum penalties permitted under the law.”

Court documents state that while Vanriette was terminated from his position at NKCH during the initial criminal investigation, he was still an employee at Truman Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, which is now known as University Health. KCTV5 reached out to University Health for comment but did not immediately hear back.