LIHUE — A Kauai Marriott Resort & Beach Club employee, whose cell phone was found recording video inside a hotel women’s locker room, pleaded no contest Thursday to first-degree invasion of privacy.
Alan Ganir, a 40-year-old housekeeping worker with the resort until he was fired subsequent to his arrest last year, was charged with the class C felony in September after a female coworker discovered an iPhone registered to his name hidden in a tissue box with a hole cut in the side placed behind a toilet.
In exchange for Ganir’s no-contest plea, 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 Fifth Circuit Court Chief Judge Randal Valenciano will be free to give Ganir up to five years in jail and order him to pay an additional $10,000 in fines.
He is scheduled to appear in court for sentencing on Sept. 12.
The discovery of Ganir’s iPhone in the women’s locker room also prompted a class-action lawsuit. Attorneys for six female Marriott employees filed a civil claim against Ganir and Marriott International in September, accusing the hotel of fostering a workplace environment that is hostile toward women.
Ganir was arrested on Sept. 1 and later fired from the hotel, but according to evidence submitted by the plaintiffs, the women later realized they had been unknowingly recorded for well over a year in spite of complaints to hotel management by numerous female employees about the women’s locker room.
The lawsuit states that, despite employees’ written complaints, “the situation in the bathroom continued several nights per week, on a regular basis.”
Marriott’s legal representatives have repeatedly declined previous requests for comment on the case.
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Caleb Loehrer, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cloehrer@thegardenisland.com.
