By Eden Laikin
Newsday

OCEANSIDE, N.J. — A former emergency medical technician who sued the Oceanside Fire Department last year for sexual discrimination said in court papers that she may have been videotaped without her knowledge when she was transported as a patient in a department ambulance.

In an amended complaint, Christina Rahn said that cameras hidden in two department ambulances may have violated her privacy. Fire officials said no patients were ever videotaped.

Federal officials said security cameras are permitted in ambulances, as long as the recordings are not released. And state health officials said their rules and regulations don't address the issue.

According to Anthony Iovino, attorney for the Oceanside Fire District, two security cameras were installed last year after supplies went missing from the ambulances. Iovino said no sound was recorded and the cameras were aimed at supply cabinets to avoid photographing patients. He said a recording was viewed once in the last year to see if the equipment was working. The cameras were recently taken out, Iovino said, when the supply problem stopped.

Gary Viscio of Rockville Centre — Rahn's attorney and a former member of the department — said that there are cabinets on both sides and along the back of the ambulance, making it difficult to avoid filming patients.

"I am concerned because I was initially told there were none," Viscio said. "Now I'm told they were focused only on one area which to me seems impossible." He said he and Rahn were both transported in the ambulances in the past year.

The department's attorney on this case, Jeff Siler of Garden City, did not return several calls for comment.

Three attorneys, who represent more than 40 fire departments and districts on Long Island, said in recent interviews that they have never heard of cameras in ambulances.

The lawsuit was filed in Nassau Supreme Court in September 2006, but last week Viscio made a motion to amend it to include the potential privacy violation and seek $100,000 more in damages.

Rahn, a member since 1998, became the first female officer in the department's history, she said. In 2003, Rahn said officials found out she was pregnant, demoted her and put her on medical leave for the rest of her pregnancy. She filed a claim and said she settled with the department.

After her return in 2004, Rahn said the male members of Rescue 1 ambulance company began calling her names in public and posting slanderous material about her on the Internet.

"I was told that because I was a single parent, I should stay home," Rahn said, adding in court papers that she was subjected to "verbal harassment, vulgar comments and slurs and terrible treatment."

Rahn said her complaints to the department and the commissioners were ignored. She was then suspended for 60 days in 2005 for missing required training sessions and left the department last year. She said she missed the sessions because of child care issues.

Copyright 2007 Newsday, Inc.