Ex-Sentara employee admitted filming people in Chesapeake medical facility's restroom for years, documents say
CHESAPEAKE — A former Sentara maintenance worker charged with secretly filming people in one of the health care company's restrooms for years has admitted to the crimes, according to court documents.
Jeffrey Leffel, 43, was arrested May 29 after a woman found the phone, according to a document filed in the case. The electronic device was mounted under the sink with a screw and wire system that Leffel had created, the document said, with the camera pointed toward the toilet.
The restroom is in a two-story Sentara medical office building, at 1933 Edwin Dr. in the Edinburgh area of Chesapeake. It's a single-occupant, unisex restroom available to all. A sign out front indicates the building is home to a diagnostic center, medical offices, a therapy center and YMCA.
Leffel was a maintenance worker and had been employed by Sentara for about nine years, according to a company spokesman.
'Sentara took swift action to terminate the maintenance worker's employment following his initial arrest,' the company said in a statement issued Friday. 'This behavior is reprehensible, and we are fully cooperating with the authorities.'
Leffel's attorney, Mario Lorello, declined Friday to comment on the charges.
In an interview with police, Leffel said he 'had an addiction' and that it was women he was interested in filming. He said he used his work phone to make the recordings and would retrieve it later in the day. After reviewing the recordings, he copied the parts he liked to his personal cellphone, according to a search warrant filed in the case. While Leffel told detectives he had been doing it for two to three years, police said they found images dating back to 2021.
After executing a search warrant on Leffel's phones, police reported finding dozens of images of adult women, and said they're working to identify victims. Leffel is charged with 42 counts of unlawful filming, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. More charges are possible as the investigation continues, according to a police spokesman.
Anyone who believes they may have been a victim, and who used the single occupant restrooms in the building between December 2021 and May 2025, is asked to contact Chesapeake police. Anyone with information or concerns is encouraged to call the department's crime investigations section at 757-382-8256, or send an email to tdreed@cityofchesapeake.net.
Jane Harper, jane.harper@pilotonline.com
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