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Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - The Olmsted County Attorney’s Office has opened a criminal case against a former Mayo Clinic employee who was behind a large patient data breach last year.

The breach has also led to lawsuits filed by women who allege their medical records were improperly accessed by the employee - including intimate images.

Andy Brownell/TSM-Rochester
Andy Brownell/TSM-Rochester
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A charge of unauthorized computer access has been filed against 28-year-old Ahmad Maher Abdel-Munim Alsughayer, who now has a Saginaw, Michigan address.

A Rochester Police Dept. investigator interviewed a woman who said she was one of the victims of the data breach.

The criminal complaint says the woman “was upset because this incident appeared as though the hospital employee had accessed her medical records with the sole purpose of viewing her nude images.”

According to the complaint, the investigator “reviewed a report the hospital sent to law enforcement stating Alsughayer had accessed protected patient information without a need to complete his role as a doctor and hospital employee and the hospital had already taken disciplinary action against him.”

Alsughayer has been ordered to make his first court appearance next month. Court records show he is represented by an attorney who is with the same law firm that is involved in the Derek Chauvin case.

The latest lawsuit against Alsughayer and Mayo Clinic was filed in May by a 29-year-old Hennepin County woman.

The lawsuit says Alsughayer “was at an off-campus, private location” last year when he accessed her protected health information and nude photographs. The lawsuit says “Alsughayer did not need photographic images of Plaintiff’s breasts and genitals to do his job.”

That case is scheduled for a court hearing in August.

Two others filed in Olmsted County Court are currently scheduled for trial next year.

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