Pontiac — A Rochester Hills doctor has been charged with taking pictures of five naked adults and children, and the Oakland County sheriff and prosecutor warn there could be hundreds more victims, possibly even more than those abused by disgraced Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar.
Dr. Oumair Aejaz, 40, allegedly placed hidden cameras in dressing rooms and used cameras to take videos of naked people, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. While law enforcement officials have not reviewed the thousands of videos found in Aejaz’s home, Bouchard said they found videos recorded in bathrooms, hospital rooms, dressing rooms, closets, bedrooms and bathrooms over a six-year period.
“This is, and I cannot stress this enough, just the tip of the iceberg,” Bouchard said. “This person is possibly one of the worst I’ve ever seen. Because there is no particular category. It’s not just children, it’s not just women, it’s not just men. … The victimhood is so broad and the perversion so great that we are only just beginning to understand it. It’s disturbing on so many levels.”
Aejaz was arrested on August 8 and charged on August 13 with inciting sexual abuse of children, five counts of using computers to commit crimes, and four counts of distributing or taking images of an unclothed person in August 2023. The charged activities span from 2020 to 2023.
If convicted, Aejaz faces maximum penalties ranging from five years in prison for taking pictures of a naked person, seven years for using a computer to commit a crime, to 20 years in prison for child sexual abuse.
Aejaz’s lawyer, Mariell Lehman, declined to comment Tuesday.
The charges stem from a mother who was in a locker room at Goldfish Swim School in Rochester Hills with her two- and four-year-old children. Aejaz allegedly filmed the mother, the two children and another adult woman and was in a nearby locker room, Oakland County District Attorney Karen McDonald said. The child sexual abuse charge stems from a victim whose identity has not yet been determined, McDonald said.
Aejaz is in Oakland County Jail on $2 million bail, and prosecutors expect him to stay there.
“This individual has not only abused the trust of parents and community members, but also that of our respected institutions and hospitals, which, I would like to emphasize, have been very cooperative,” McDonald said.
Bouchard said Aejaz is so dangerous because he has no specific victim profile and appears to record and abuse anyone.
“It’s more than just videotaping. It’s physical, violent, criminal behavior,” Bouchard said. “A woman is unconscious in her hospital bed and he’s abusing her. A two-year-old thinks they’re having a great day at the pool and is filmed naked. There’s no one off limits to this sick, sick man.”
What is known about the doctor
Aejaz is an Indian citizen and has been working in the United States on a visa since 2011, Bouchard said.
He received his medical education license in Michigan in 2011, according to the Michigan Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, and it expired in 2015. He completed his residency at Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital, Bouchard said. He moved to Dothan, Alabama, in 2018 and later returned to Oakland County. He received a new license in Michigan in 2018, which is still valid. He is an internist, according to WebMD.
According to LARA, no public disciplinary action was taken against him.
Aejaz was authorized to work at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc and Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township and possibly other hospitals, Bouchard said, noting that authorities are still trying to determine where else he worked because he was an individually employed physician.
Ascension spokeswoman Airielle Taylor and Henry Ford Health spokeswoman Lauren Zakalik said they were aware of the allegations and that Aejaz is not an employee but has privileges at their hospitals. Taylor said Ascension has revoked his access to its facilities. Zakalik said the Detroit-based health system has taken action to prevent Aejaz from practicing at Henry Ford hospitals.
Corewell Health spokesman Mark Geary said Aejaz had privileges at Royal Oak Hospital and did not practice there in 2024, but not in 2023, when many of the alleged acts occurred. Corewell Health is investigating Aejaz’s privileges, which Geary said were already “so limited.”
More about the investigation
Bouchard said Aejaz had no criminal history, nor were there any complaints of criminal conduct before the sheriff’s office was made aware of his alleged actions in August.
The investigation is still in its early stages, the sheriff said. Officers have seized six computers, four cell phones and 15 external storage devices, one of which contained 13,000 videos.
In videos showing victims who have not yet been identified, Aejaz is alleged to be sexually abusing women lying unconscious in hospital beds, McDonald said. In some of the videos, Aejaz is alleged to have shown himself abusing the women, Bouchard said. It is not yet clear whether these women are his patients or how he gained access to them.
Bouchard said he believes there could be “potentially hundreds” of victims based on the videos he has seen. He compared the case to Nassar, who was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of women and girls under the guise of medical treatment at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
Nassar also possessed thousands of images of child pornography and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. He was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison in Ingham County and 40 to 125 years in prison in Eaton County for sexually abusing more than 300 girls and young women.
“What concerns me is that while this (Nassar) case was horrific, it was based on real patients who faced him, which typically represents a certain type of targeted victimization,” Bouchard said. “There is no target here. It’s completely random. It can be a stranger, it can be a person in a medical setting, it can be someone in their home. It can be anyone.”
Aejaz’s wife filed for divorce in June and sought a restraining order before police began their investigation. She said Aejaz had been recording her in her house since 2019 and she had confronted him about it but he continued doing so, the PPO petition said. Aejaz’s wife said he had recorded her in several places in her house, including the bathroom.
Oakland County District Court Judge Julie McDonald denied the request for a temporary restraining order, finding there was no reasonable cause to believe she was in danger and that there had been no recent violent, harassing or threatening behavior.
After Aejaz was charged, his wife filed a petition in the divorce proceedings seeking sole custody and possession of their home, which was granted to her. She said she feared Aejaz would endanger her and their children.
The Sheriff’s Department has set up an email address for anyone who believes they may be a victim or anyone with information about Aejaz. Anyone with information can contact [email protected].
