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Former Police Commissioner Bealefeld Will Help In Hopkins Investigation

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A big name is now part of Johns Hopkins' internal investigation into a gynecologist who secretly recorded his patients, and it's causing controversy.

Mike Hellgren has new information about who is now involved.

Former Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld is now assisting Hopkins internally. Their investigation is one of more than four that's going on right now to get to the bottom of what went wrong.

The investigation into how Johns Hopkins gynecologist Nikita Levy secretly videotaped perhaps thousands of his patients--and who knew about it--now includes former Baltimore City Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld, as well as state regulators, city police and the city state's attorney.

Hopkins confirms former commissioner Bealefeld will be part of its internal investigation. They won't say his exact role and Bealefeld isn't talking, but his involvement--just seven months removed from his post--concerns forensic investigator Tom Mauriello.

"The opposition attorneys are going to use that, and that's going to cloud the investigation--no matter what he comes up with," Mauriello said. "It doesn't make sense to me. There are issues of bias and everything else that are natural. Some of the behavior and activities appear to have happened when he was in fact commissioner."

Related Link: All Of The Letters Hopkins Has Sent Our Relating To Dr. Levy

Mauriello likens the widespread, complex investigation into Dr. Levy--involving issues of trust and a powerful institution--to that of former Penn State Coach Jerry Sandusky and the Catholic sex abuse scandal.

"It's a question of what was reported and what wasn't reported, and you never really know what that was," he said.

Hopkins says it acted quickly after a co-worker discovered a camera pen around Levy's neck. They cut off his contact with patients. Now police are combing through computers seized from the home where he killed himself just weeks later.

"A person doesn't engage in the activity that doctor was engaged in and walk in every day and appear and act completely normal. There's always that something," said Mauriello. "At this point, they're going to have to evaluate everything they have."

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Federal investigators are assisting city police who have received calls from more than 2,000 patients.

The designated police hotline is 410-396-2269. Police say all information is confidential.

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