College Student Goes to School Officials To Complain About a Hidden Camera in Her Apartment . . . And Is Committed To Mental Hospital (Before Camera is Found)

This is an amazing story. Brooklyn College student Chinemerem Eze, a Nigerian national, was convinced that her landlord had hidden a camera in her apartment. She complained to school officials, who proceeded to arrange for her being committed to a psychiatric ward . . . Then later she found the camera.

I suppose it brings a new meaning to the school’s motto: Nil sine magno labore (“Nothing without great effort”)

Eze is now suing for false imprisonment as well as defamation on the Internet.
The complaint says that Eze went to Brooklyn College’s Office of Campus and Community Safety Services. An ambulance was called and Eze was later committed to Kings County Psychiatric Hospital for two weeks.

According to one report, she previously won $110,000 settlement against the Health and Hospitals Corp.

She found the camera in an air vent.

Eze, 26, is now a student at Macaulay Honors College.

This could make for an interesting case in terms of proximate causation. Clearly, the school itself did not make the decision to commit Eze to the hospital. That decision had to be made by health professionals. The school can argue that they are morally and statutorily bound to seek assistance for students and that the failure to do so can lead to suicides or injuries to others. Yet, this is not the type of case one would relish before a jury.

Source: NY Times

Kudos: Michael Maskell

Jonathan Turley