Judge: Give up phone password

LIHUE — A former janitor at Kauai Marriott Resort &Beach Club will have to turn over the password to the iPhone he used to own before it was found behind a toilet in the women’s locker room recording video of his female coworkers and confiscated by police.

A Fifth Circuit judge ordered last week that the phone and its contents will be allowed as evidence in a class-action lawsuit brought against Alan Ganir and the Marriott hotel chain by six women who still work at the Lihue resort and claim they were subjected to sexual harrassment and a hostile workplace for years in spite of numerous complaints to mangement about suspicious activity.

Judge Randal Valenciano’s July 12 order says the women suing Ganir and their attorneys “are entitled to access, inspect and copy the cell phone,” which is being held by the Kauai Police Department as evidence in the criminal case.

The order further requires Ganir “to provide passwords necessary to access the phone,” and provide fingerprints “or other biometrics” needed to unlock any data or applications on the phone.

Ganir will also have to identify and give passwords for every recording device in his possession since January 2015, which also must be made available for the plaintiffs and their attorneys to inspect, along with a copy of Ganir’s computer hard drive.

Ganir recently pleaded no contest to one count of invasion of privacy in the criminal case against him. In exchange for pleading to the felony charge, county prosecutors agreed to ask for only six months in jail, probation, and restitution for the victims in an amount to be determined later. But Valenciano can give Ganir up to five years in jail and order him to pay as much as $10,000.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 12.

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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.