Celebrity-snooping ex-UCLA Medical Center staffer is indicted
Lawanda Jackson, who has since resigned after admitting to peeking at the hospital records of stars, was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of obtaining identifiable health data for profit.
A former administrative specialist at UCLA Medical Center has been indicted by a federal grand jury for snooping in the medical records of celebrity patients at UCLA Medical Center and selling information to a national media outlet, according to documents unsealed today.
Lawanda Jackson, 49, was indicted April 9 on a charge of obtaining individually identifiable health information for commercial advantage. Representatives for actress Farrah Fawcett allege that Jackson leaked personal information about her battle with cancer to the National Enquirer.
The indictment was handed up days after the Los Angeles Times reported about widespread snooping at UCLA.
According to the indictment, Jackson had an agreement with the media outlet to obtain information on celebrity patients in exchange for money. She received at least $4,600 in the form of checks from the outlet, payable to her husband. The agreement lasted from around 2006 until at least May 21, 2007, according to the indictment.
The Times reported earlier this month that Jackson had allegedly pried into the private medical records of California First Lady Maria Shriver, Fawcett and 60 others. In an interview with the newspaper on April 8, Jackson, 49, denied that she had leaked the information she saw or otherwise profited from it.
"Clearly I made a mistake; let's put it like that," she said when asked in a telephone interview why she improperly looked at the records of so many patients, including Fawcett and Shriver. "I didn't leak anything or anything like that. It wasn't for money or anything. It was just looking."
She dismissed questions about whether she had a financial motive to sell information. According to court records, Jackson and her husband, Victor, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, listing assets of less than $23,000 and liabilities of $37,300. But she said, "That was a long, long, long time ago." In the 2001 filing, she listed her job at UCLA; her husband said he was disabled.
In the interview with The Times, Jackson would not say whether she had ever spoken to the Enquirer. "I'm not going to answer that," she said. "I'm scared to answer that. . . . I know I'm not the leak. I don't believe I'm the leak."
Earlier this month, Enquirer senior reporter Alan Smith defended his coverage of Fawcett's cancer. "This is a newsworthy story," he said. "We publish what we believe is accurate."
