Rutgers Doc Accused Of Filming Women Says He Was Set Up

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — Dr. James Goydos, one of the state's most respected cancer doctors — until he was accused of filming women as they used the bathroom at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey — has now sued Rutgers and the Cancer Institute, saying he was set up.

In his lawsuit, which you can find here, Goydos also alleges that the cameras in question were placed in the second-floor women’s bathroom at the Cancer Institute. The location of the cameras has been unreported until today, and was not corroborated by the county prosecutor. The filming was done over a two-year period, from April 2016 through March 2018, according to the Middlesex County prosecutor.

Goydos says he is not the one who placed the cameras in the women's bathroom; it was instead a plot to frame him led by Steven Libutti, the current director of the Cancer Institute.

Patch reported on Goydos when he was indicted in February of this year, and charged with secretly recording dozens of women in the bathroom. Before he was indicted, Goydos was the Chief of Melanoma and Soft Tissue Oncology at Rutgers' Cancer Institute, and one of the most highly paid surgeons in the state. He made $437,500 a year teaching at Rutgers and leading research trials, specifically in melanoma, a field he was regarded as an expert in.

Goydos, 58, lives in East Brunswick. He has since been fired from both Rutgers and the Cancer Institute, and was banned from ever returning to campus.

The lawsuit was filed by Goydos and his wife, Maria Martins, who is also a physician, and it was first obtained by MyCentralJersey. In it, Goydos describes an elaborate conspiracy against him. He says it was orchestrated to punish him after he initiated a dispute in 2014 over cancer grant funding from the National Cancer Institute.

Goydos says his set-up was all "a flawlessly orchestrated plan" orchestrated by Libutti, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, RWJBarnabas Health and other high-ranking Rutgers doctors and officials.

"Dr. Goydos ... has been put in a position in which he is fighting for his liberty, defending his good name and reputation, and has sustained significant damage to his career and suffered a major impediment in his capacity to earn a living," according to his suit.

Goydos is represented by Shaun Blick of Blick Law LLC, based in Somerset.

Rutgers, RWJBarnabas Health and the Cancer Institute are all named as defendants in his civil suit. In his lawsuit, Goydos said the bathroom cameras connected to a termination point somewhere in Libutti’s office, an assertion also unconfirmed by the county prosecutor.

When Patch asked Rutgers if the school or Libutti would like to respond, a school spokeswoman said Rutgers stands by the charges filed against Goydos.

"Rutgers doesn’t comment on pending litigation, though we will certainly defend ourselves against these claims," said Dory Devlin, a Rutgers spokeswoman. "With respect to the criminal charges pending against Dr. Goydos, we can only say we immediately referred the matter to the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and cooperated fully with their investigation leading to the indictments. We applaud the prosecutor’s efforts to deal with this matter in a comprehensive and thorough fashion and we continue to cooperate with the prosecutor as this matter unfolds."

One of the women filmed brings her own class-action lawsuit against Goydos, Cancer Institute

The women are identified in the indictment as "Jane Doe 1-26," but the county prosecutor says there were 30 women captured on camera total. The women were recorded in various states of undress in the bathroom.

One of those women who was filmed, "Jane Doe," has also now brought her own class-action lawsuit against the Cancer Institute and Goydos. She is being represented by Olimpio Lee Squitieri, of Squitieri & Fearon in the class-action lawsuit, MyCentralJersey reported.

Goydos was also charged with computer theft and burglary. Prosecutors say he broke into the offices of four of his colleagues at the Cancer Institute and hacked into their computers. He stole personal information from them, and later tried to impersonate them, prosecutors say.

It was all part of an elaborate scheme to defraud the Cancer Institute, prosecutors said in the indictment, but did not elaborate. He's also been charged with official misconduct and invasion of privacy.

Police have been investigating Dr. Goydos for more than a year

The Middlesex County prosecutor has been investigating Goydos for some time now, since they were first alerted to his alleged nefarious activities by Rutgers.

As Patch reported at the time, the prosecutor executed a search warrant at his East Brunswick home on March 30 of 2018. Police said that after combing through his house that day, they found an unlicensed gun in his basement, as well as wiretapping materials and illegal, hunting-caliber slingshots.

The gun was a Colt Sporter Match HBAR. A semi automatic and with a detachable magazine, it's classified as an assault rifle under New Jersey law's strict gun laws. At the time, Goydos said the gun was a gift from his brother, given to him decades ago, and it was kept inside a bag in a work space in the basement. The bag was kept locked in a shelf.

He was charged at the time with second-degree unlawful possession of a weapon. In his lawsuit, Goydos said he was “led shamefully into the street of his suburban neighborhood as friends and neighbors looked on." He also that while he was being processed for the gun charge at East Brunswick police headquarters, Rutgers police showed up to give him a letter that he would be placed on leave from the university. He cited that as further evidence of the conspiracy against him.

Police say they also found wiretapping materials in Goydos' home during that raid, such as a Sony digital voice recorder and a USB drive recorder, which you can use to surreptitiously record someone talking.

Goydos was first placed on paid leave after he was arrested for the gun charge last year, and has since been fired.