Alexander F. Fox, partner with LewisFox Law in Miami. Courtesy photo

Partner Alexander F. Fox and colleagues from LewisFox Attorneys at Law in Miami say they got a “malicious” cybersnooping case against pediatric surgeon Colin Knight dismissed — eventually — by the state, but the damage to the client's reputation had already been done.

“If anybody runs a Google search on Dr. Colin Knight, the first three or four things that come up aren't his surgical experience or his thousands of hours of community service. The stuff that comes up is him being accused of cybersnooping, which he never did,” Fox said.

Dr. Colin Knight. Courtesy photo

Knight, a doctor at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, was accused in May 2017 by his ex-girlfriend, Grace Carricarte, of snooping on her via an online surveillance feed using his personal computer and hospital network.

Carricarte, a mental health therapist and adjunct lecturer at the University of Miami, claimed she installed security cameras in her Coral Gables home for peace of mind after a burglary, according to a CNN report.

Before criminal charges were brought, Carricarte served Knight a civil injunction, ordering him to stay away from her.

“I wish that there had been a modicum of effort expended by the agencies that originally filed these charges,” Fox said.

Prosecutors dropped the charges July 23 after concluding they had insufficient evidence to prove Carricarte had not given Knight permission to access her surveillance feed.

News reports indicated Knight's employer stood by him, deciding not to suspend him, but Fox said the scandal hurt the doctor.

“I think (Carricarte) found something that she thought gave her some leverage over him so she could try to ruin his life, and that's what she did,” Fox said.

Carricarte and her lawyer, Robin Pimentel, partner at the Law Offices of Pimentel and Castillo in Miami, did not respond to requests for comment before deadline.

When Fox received a call from the State Attorney's Office a few months later, he “knew it wasn't a positive development.”

“We talked a little bit about potentially not filing the case,” Fox said, “But (the State Attorney) said based on the heavy pressure that he was getting from the victim and her family, and the fact that he had found her credible, he was 99 percent certain that they were going to file charges.”

Knight was arrested in December 2017 and charged in February 2018 with 20 felony counts of unauthorized access to a computer, 20 counts of unlawfully accessing a computer device and one count of video voyeurism.

Knight denied the charges, claiming Carricarte had asked him to check on her.

“Obviously, if somebody had given permission for you to use their cameras, you can't be prosecuted for unauthorized use of their video cameras,” Fox said.

Fox claimed Knight was worried about Carricarte as he'd recently ended their relationship.

“She obviously was not happy about that decision and she wanted the relationship to continue,” he said.

According to Fox, Carricarte reached out weeks later “to put things back together,” but Knight wanted the relationship to end.

To support claims that Knight had permission to access the surveillance footage, Fox provided state prosecutor Derek Ko with sworn testimony from multiple witnesses.

In one deposition, a mutual friend of the couple, Charles Pinto, recalled Carricarte mentioning she'd given Knight access to her securiy cameras when he visited her home for a personal training session. Pinto claimed Carricarte mentioned Knight, as she laughed at her dog, which kept jumping on her.

“She said, 'If Colin was watching this right now, it would be really funny. It would look really funny to him.' And I remember we even looked over at her security cameras and waved,” Pinto said in the deposition.

Fox says Knight is now examining “all possible legal remedies” against Carricarte for “the malicious prosecution, and the defamation and slander of his character that has gone on for almost an entire year.”

As a result of negative press, Sunset Elementary School dropped Knight from its father-child bonding program, All Pro Dads.

“The school didn't feel comfortable having him involved,” Fox said.

Nicklaus Children's Hospital also came under scrutiny for not firing him. Knight took a leave of absense in May but is set to return soon.

“I think there's a danger, always, that people will rush to judgment without knowing the facts. The public can rush to judgment and that's obviously dangerous, but it's much more dangerous when a government agency, or a prosecutor's office or a police force doesn't do an investigation and simply makes an arrest without knowing all the facts,” Fox said.

Carricarte is still pursuing the civil injunction against Knight, which is set for a hearing on Aug. 17.

“It's very difficult to undo a case,” Fox said. “It's easy to make an arrest. It's easy to arrest somebody; it's easy to write 'closed by arrest' on a police file, but it's hard to undo that.”

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