A federal grand jury has indicted former University of Maryland hospital pharmacist Matthew Bathula on charges of cybercrimes related to allegations that he hacked workplace computers to steal private photos of his coworkers and activated surveillance cameras to spy on young female doctors and pharmacists in training.
In an indictment unsealed Friday, prosecutors charged Bathula, of Howard County, with unauthorized access to protected computers and identity theft. Federal prosecutors put the number of victims at 195.
His attorney, Paulette Pagán, declined to comment.
Bathula worked as a clinical pharmacist from 2011 to 2024 at the University of Maryland Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. He was fired in October 2024 after the hospital’s technology staff detected his alleged crimes.
He’s accused of installing keystroke loggers on computers throughout the hospital to steal usernames and passwords from his female coworkers. He allegedly used their credentials to log in and comb through the women’s accounts for intimate materials such as nude photos, diary entries and breastfeeding pictures.
Investigators found Bathula with a USB drive that contained 247 sexually explicit photos and 27 sexually explicit videos, as well as other compromising photos and videos and photos of coworkers’ passports and driver’s licenses, according to the indictment.
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The criminal charges follow a class-action lawsuit filed against Bathula’s former employers, the University of Maryland Medical System and its flagship University of Maryland Medical Center. Six lead plaintiffs accused the hospital system of negligence, saying officials failed to detect and stop Bathula’s alleged decade-long campaign of cyber voyeurism. The women also say the hospital failed to sufficiently notify staff and patients after uncovering the security breach.
The women’s lawsuit, filed April 3, 2025, in Baltimore Circuit Court, brought the allegations against Bathula to light.
Two months later, state regulators suspended his pharmacy license.
In the lawsuit, several women also alleged that Bathula secretly activated their home security cameras. He is accused of disabling the camera light inside one woman’s home to watch videos of her with her children.
The women said they only discovered that they had been spied upon after FBI agents showed them some of Bathula’s photos and videos, according to the lawsuit.
This story will be updated.
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