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Goldfish Swim School sufferer Morgan Dean talks about ordeal for the primary time
Morgan Dean speaks publicly for the primary time after a now-convicted physician was utilizing hidden cameras to file ladies and youngsters in a change room at a swim faculty.
- A mom is suing Goldfish Swim School after a health care provider secretly recorded her and her son in a altering room.
- The lawsuit alleges the swim faculty lacked fundamental safety measures, permitting the predator to enter and set up cameras.
- The perpetrator, Dr. Oumair Aejaz, was convicted of a number of intercourse crimes and is serving a 35-60 yr jail sentence.
- The lady is in search of to carry the swim faculty accountable and power adjustments to its security protocols.
Athletic coach Morgan Dean was working a busy highschool basketball recreation when she bought that mind-numbing name from the sheriff’s division.
“Ma’am, we think we’ve identified you and your son in one of the videos from the Goldfish swim school case.”
Dean dropped to her knees.
“I was sobbing. A resource officer had to pull me up,” recalled Dean, who inside 24 hours would see for herself the pictures that proceed to hang-out her: Secret video recordings of her within the nude, and her 2-year-old son partially clothed inside a altering room on the Goldfish Swim School in Rochester.
“That might have been the worst day of my entire life,” Dean stated to the Free Press in a current unique interview, simply days after submitting a category motion lawsuit towards the swim faculty, alleging it failed to guard her and others from a sexual predator who secretly filmed ladies and youngsters as they modified out and in of their swimsuits between 2021 and 2024.
According to Dean’s lawsuit, this predator was in a position to stroll into the swim faculty at the least 50 instances with out being questioned or stopped, snuck cameras into the constructing, hid them underneath altering room dividers, recorded ladies and youngsters in rooms subsequent to him, and streamed the movies through Wi-Fi to a handheld gadget that he used to manage digicam angles.
‘This was completely preventable’
It’s been a yr and a half since getting that cellphone name, and Dean is talking out publicly for the primary time about her horrifying ordeal, which entails the now-convicted Dr. Oumair Aejaz, who’s serving 35-60 years in jail for a slew of crimes. The Rochester Hills physician pleaded no contest in October 2025 to 31 counts of sexual misconduct, together with molesting a baby whereas recording himself doing so, and secretly recording kids and adults in locations like hospital rooms and bedrooms.
Among his victims was Dean.
“Stop looking at the ground, you coward, look up and look me in the eyes,” Dean stated to Aejaz at his sentencing hearing in December. ” … Look at me when I speak to you.”
The disgraced physician stared on the flooring, by no means trying up.
Dean, in the meantime, has shifted her focus from the physician to the swim faculty and its company house owners, Goldfish Swim School Franchising LLC, which owns about 150 swim faculties throughout the nation. She needs to carry Goldfish accountable for − as she alleges − plenty of wrongdoings, together with:
- Not having a sign-in process on the entrance desk or any monitoring of the altering areas, which allowed a predator to enter the constructing, stroll about freely, and set up hidden cameras.
- Subjecting her to the daunting process of getting to go to a police station and determine herself in nude photographs, together with photographs of her 2-year-old son partially clothed. She noticed her face trying into the digicam, and a transparent shot of her nostril, which she had damaged in highschool. “I said ‘Jesus Christ … that’s me,'” she stated.
- Robbing her of her sense of safety, a lot in order that she has frequent panic assaults, fears public locations, outlets virtually completely on-line now, and does grocery procuring late at night time when the shop is empty. “I’m so afraid. Everything scares me,” she says.
- Instilling in her a way of failure, particularly, for failing to guard her toddler son from a harmful particular person.
“What did I do so wrong that I couldn’t protect him?” Dean stated, noting that query runs by way of her thoughts continuously. “That just broke me. It lingers all the time. ‘How did I not see this?’ … I thought I was safe just taking him to swim class.”
Perhaps equally irritating for Dean is that this:
“It was totally preventable,” Dean stated, as she questioned aloud: “Why in the world were there not safety measures to protect the kids?”
Goldfish: ‘We stay deeply empathetic and supportive’ of physician’s victims
In a ready assertion, Goldfish acknowledged Dean’s lawsuit, stating:
“Goldfish Swim School Franchising, LLC, the franchisor of the Goldfish Swim School brand, is aware of the recent civil court filing, Dr. Aejaz’s criminal sentencing, and the past concerns of those impacted by the terrible incident that took place at one of our franchises. We remain deeply empathetic and supportive of those affected by Aejaz’s criminal wrongdoing.”
The assertion continues:
“Families trust the Goldfish Swim School brand greatly, and we understand the seriousness of that responsibility. The privacy, safety and well-being of every child, parent, employee, and visitor remain a priority of our franchisees. Because this matter is in active litigation, we are limited in what we can say about specific claims.”
This is the second lawsuit going through Goldfish involving Aejaz. In 2024, two feminine staff on the Rochester faculty additionally sued the corporate, alleging it lacked security measures to guard them and others from Aejaz. That lawsuit is pending.
Lawsuit: Here’s how the physician bought away with it
According to Dean’s lawsuit and attorneys, Goldfish had no insurance policies or procedures in place to safe its altering rooms or adequately display screen those that entered the constructing. While the physician did have kids who had been enrolled within the swim faculty, investigative information present that he entered the constructing on a number of events with out his youngsters or spouse, and nobody stopped him or questioned him.
While the swim faculty has no communal altering areas, it does have non-public altering areas which can be separated with dividers and locks. These dividers have 8 to 10 inches of house beneath them. The lawsuit alleges it’s on this house that the physician managed to cover his cameras.
“For me what’s most egregious is the wholesale lack of safety protocols. This was foreseeable,” stated legal professional Megan Bonanni, considered one of Dean’s attorneys who’s pursuing the category motion towards Goldfish and its Rochester franchisee. “This particular school had zero procedures and policies in place. Had they put even the most basic safety measures in place this crime would have been avoided …. anyone from the street could walk into Goldfish undetected.”
As for the altering rooms, Bonanni stated they’re “not private at all,” noting that adults have repeatedly expressed issues about kids having the ability to crawl beneath the dividers and watch them undress. Bonanni can also be representing Goldfish staff who’re suing the varsity in a separate, pending lawsuit.
Mom recounts horror of figuring out herself
Aejaz was arrested in August 2024 after his spouse tipped off authorities that he had been secretly recording her and their two minor kids, in addition to feminine kin. She additionally advised investigators that she discovered recordings of people undressing on the Goldfish Swim School in Rochester Hills, and produced supplies that raised concern for authorities.
Soon after, Dean acquired an e-mail from the Goldfish Swim School, informing her and different households {that a} former buyer had made unauthorized recordings on the faculty throughout sure years, and inspired households to achieve out to the sheriff’s workplace in the event that they thought they could have been affected.
Dean despatched an e-mail to the sheriff’s workplace. A sergeant known as her again in a half hour, asking her to ship images of herself and her son. Among the pictures she despatched had been pics of her son’s blue and white striped dinosaur towel, and what she known as her post-partum “mom” bathing swimsuit.
“I kind of forgot about it,” Dean recalled.
Then got here that December cellphone name, the one which triggered her to break down whereas working a highschool sporting occasion. A sergeant had known as to say police noticed photographs which may be her and her son and wanted her to return to the station.
“The next day I went in and identified myself,” Dean recalled. “I saw my son and I in that video. It was awful.”
At first, she recalled pondering it wasn’t her. So she had the sergeant play the video yet one more time.
“I was looking at the camera, and then I saw my nose, which I had broken in high school,” Dean recalled. “I said, ‘Jesus Christ. That’s it.’ I looked at him and said, ‘That’s me.’ Then I said, ‘What’s next?'”
Dean stated she felt defeated, helpless, numb.
“And then I remember walking out to my car. People say they’re seeing red when they’re angry,” Dean recalled. ” I saw black — this black hole of sadness and rage.”
Ten months later, Aejaz was convicted of sexual conduct.
“While we didn’t and wouldn’t provide this abuser any leniency, I’m grateful the plea ensures victims is not going to must testify at a trial,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said following Aejaz’s plea. “Their bravery and the great work of regulation enforcement made certain Aejaz won’t ever once more hurt one other sufferer.”
Mom wants something good to come out of ‘horrible nightmare’
So far, Dean is the first person from the swim school to go public with her story. The employee plaintiffs in the other pending lawsuit have remained confidential, which is typical in cases alleging sexual misconduct and assault.
Dean said she’s speaking out with the hopes of inspiring others to come forward. She and her lawyers say there are others at the swim school who have been victimized by Aejaz, but have not yet gone to authorities.
“It takes tremendous courage to step forward as Ms. Dean has, and we hope other families who were affected will feel empowered to come forward as well,” legal professional Lisa Esser-Weidenfeller, who can also be representing Dean, stated in an announcement.
Dean’s lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of cash, in addition to an order requiring Goldfish so as to add safety measures to ensure what occurred to Dean and others does not occur once more.
“I needed to know that something good was going to come out of this horrible nightmare,” Dean stated concerning her determination to return ahead. “I need to make sure that Goldfish is held accountable, and is absolutely forced to make a change.”
If you imagine you had been a sufferer of Aejaz on the Goldfish Swim School in Rochester, you’ll be able to e-mail the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office particular investigations unit at [email protected], or name the workplace at (248) 537-3530.
Contact Tresa Baldas: [email protected]
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2026/05/11/goldfish-swim-school-victim-morgan-dean-filmed-changing-oumair-aejaz/89857019007/
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