A former Memorial Hermann The Woodlands employee accused of hiding cameras inside hospital bathrooms pleaded guilty this week to seven felony counts of invasive visual recording and was sentenced to four years in a Texas state jail facility. Robert Shrader, 41, waived his right to appeal, meaning his convictions and sentence are now final.
According to Click2Houston, the court ordered two maximum two-year sentences to run consecutively, and Shrader's time must be served day-for-day with no early release through good conduct credit. Montgomery County District Attorney's Office prosecutor Adam McLane said the plea followed extensive consultation with victims, who supported resolving the case this way. As reported by hellowoodlands.com, Shrader entered his guilty plea on Sept. 16, 2026, admitting to all seven felony counts of invasive visual recording.
A Trust Abused, Prosecutors Say
McLane said Shrader abused a position of trust to invade the privacy of his victims, and added that Shrader now stands convicted of seven felonies and will serve four years, per the same Click2Houston account. Another prosecutor, Mike Holley, pointed to the seven felony convictions, the consecutive sentences, and Shrader's waiver of appeal as reasons he called the outcome just. Holley said the office's responsibility is to seek justice for people harmed by crime, the outlet reported.
Resolving the case through a guilty plea rather than a public trial spared victims the additional intrusion of court proceedings, according to the same report. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said they remain committed to protecting information that could identify victims and asked the public and media to respect victims' privacy.
How the Case Began
The case dates to August 2025, when hospital engineers doing maintenance on the HVAC system discovered a hidden camera on Aug. 21, according to KPRC. A second camera turned up days later, on Aug. 25. Reports have since diverged on the exact device count: KPRC's reporting describes two cameras, while ABC11 reported that a third camera was found that same day, in a single-stall bathroom on the third floor of the West Tower.
Shrader, of Magnolia, was arrested and charged with installing hidden cameras to secretly record coworkers, patients and patients' families in two different bathrooms inside Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center, according to Click2Houston's earlier coverage of his Aug. 28, 2025 appearance before a magistrate judge in Conroe. He was indicted in connection with the case in January 2026. Memorial Hermann has said it immediately engaged law enforcement and terminated him once it learned of the alleged conduct, per KPRC.
Conflicting Counts on Recordings Recovered
The scale of what investigators recovered has also been described differently across outlets. KPRC reported the cameras' memory cards held a combined 300-plus image and video recordings, while ABC11 put the number at more than 308 videos and images depicting multiple people using the bathrooms besides Shrader himself. Woodlands Online reported that detectives were analyzing seized digital devices to determine the full scope of the recording period and the total number of victims, which had grown to at least seven.
Civil Suits Followed the Criminal Case
The investigation and the lawsuits that followed brought to light allegations of secret recordings inside hospital bathrooms that stretched well beyond the criminal case itself. A nurse filed a lawsuit against Shrader in September 2025 seeking at least $1 million, according to FOX 26 Houston. A separate class-action lawsuit filed that same month sought roughly $100 million on behalf of five hospital employees and thousands of people who used the hospital's restrooms, according to KPRC/Click2Houston, describing it as a case that seeks remedy for invasion of privacy. The final status of those civil claims has not been established.
Other Texas cases show invasive visual recording charges are not unique to this hospital. In 2018, an Abilene man faced 14 counts of the same state jail felony after he was suspected of hiding a camera in a Whataburger restroom, according to Fox San Antonio. More recently, a 61-year-old man was arrested and charged with invasive visual recording after police said he secretly recorded a woman at a Texas A&M football game, 25 News Now reported.
For now, Shrader's criminal case is closed. With his appeal waived and his sentence final, attention in Montgomery County shifts to the ongoing civil litigation, even as officials continue to shield victims' identities from public disclosure.
