Las Vegas dentist accused of placing camera in restroom to capture woman’s image

A Las Vegas dentist accused of hiding a camera in an office bathroom and recording one of his employees while she changed her clothes was arrested Monday.

Dr. Mahesh Patel has been charged with one count of capturing the image of a private area of another person, a gross misdemeanor. His office, the Advanced Center for Dentistry, is at 770 Warm Springs Road, near the Las Vegas Beltway.

According to a Las Vegas police warrant, Patel, 45, met on Jan. 11 with one of his employees, a woman. He told her he had sold the practice and "wanted her to be aware of the new changes."

He then asked her to assist him with a procedure. He suggested that she change into scrubs, the warrant states. He then went into the office's unisex restroom and changed into scrubs.

When the employee went into the restroom to change, she noticed an object in the tissue holder, the warrant states. She looked closer and saw that it was a video recorder. She turned it off and took it with her.

When she confronted him about it, Patel acknowledged that the recorder belonged to him and said it "must have fallen out of his pocket." She told him it was in the tissue box, and not on the floor. He apologized and said he had placed it there, the warrant states.

The employee kept the device and turned it over to police. When police analyzed it, they found that it had recorded the woman in her undergarments.

Another woman, whom police haven't identified, also was captured undressing in the restroom, the warrant states.

Patel, a University of Iowa graduate, has been licensed to practice dentistry since 1993, according to the Nevada State Board of Dental Examiners.

He was being held Tuesday at the Clark County Detention Center.