Private Investigators Say They Warned Lawyers Waffle House Sex Tape Was Illegal
When two lawyers asked how to secure video evidence of an alleged workplace sexual encounter between the CEO of Waffle House and his housekeeper, a pair of Atlanta-area investigators balked at the suggestion. The tape that was made has since spawned a media sensation and litigation over the legitimacy of surveillance.
August 22, 2017 at 11:22 PM
12 minute read
Before Marietta lawyers David Cohen and John Butters notified the chairman of the South's most famous short-order restaurant chain that they had recordings of “predatory sexual conduct” involving his longtime housekeeper, they turned to private investigators for help.
But Thomas Hawkins, owner of Hawk Private Investigations Inc. and investigator Michael Deegan said in depositions obtained by the Daily Report that they balked when the lawyers asked for help in securing video evidence to document housekeeper Mye Brindle's claims that her boss had sexually abused her.
“Tom asked, 'How is this legal? This is going to be in somebody's home,'” Deegan testified in a deposition last year. Cohen, he recalled, had a ready answer: “We have the case law to back this up. This is her workplace.”
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