Keith Dodson ordered to pay $65,000 for invading privacy of live-in nannies

Flickr, Eriwst.

The lawsuit alleged Keith Dodson masturbated with the nannies' underwear.

​In an unusual invasion of privacy case, a Prior Lake man was ordered to pay $65,000 last month for intruding on two women living in his house.

Keith Dodson entered the rooms of two live-in nannies hired to watch his kids without permission, rummaged through their drawers, and masturbated with their underwear garments, according to allegations in the civil lawsuit.

"It was very disgusting and disturbing," says one of the women, who was not named given the nature of the case. "It wasn't just a random stranger. It was someone that I lived with and watched his kids."

The first woman, identified as D.L.T. in the suit, took a job with Dodson in early 2008, and quickly felt like something wasn't right about her new living situation.

She would often come home from her evening job to find Dodson lying on the couch, seemingly asleep, with his genitals exposed, she says. On several occasions, she scoured the room for miniature cameras hidden in a lamp or under the bed. She never found any, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched.

When D.L.T. quit in September 2009 and a second nanny took over, she still didn't know the truth. She didn't find out what was really going on until August 2010, when Dodson's wife called and told her everything.

Michael Hall III, attorney for the two nannies, says it's an unusual take on an invasion of privacy case.

​"I remember pulling over and just crying, hysterically crying," says D.L.T. "I was just really upset."

Via email, Dodson had made several confessions to his now ex-wife about his behavior toward the two nannies.

"Sometimes I would ejaculate on the underwear," he wrote in one email, later admitted as evidence during the trial. "Sometimes I would just rub my penis on the underwear and put them back in her drawer even if I had leaked some semen on them."

In another email, he admitted his intentions behind walking around the house in his boxers.

"You asked me once about wearing my boxers around [the second nanny]," the email reads. "I was doing that thinking she might accidentally see my penis and that excited me...Its keith here, not Satan...that's why I'm telling you. I can't hold in lies anymore no matter what happens to me because of them."

D.L.T. and the second nanny filed the civil suit against Dodson last fall. In court, the two women had to prove they had an expectation of privacy in their rooms, even though they were living in Dodson's house. A jury found that Dodson did invade the privacy of both nannies in October.

"Mr. Dodson made mistakes," says Michael Daub, Dodson's lawyer. "He has fully compensated the two young women for their damages. The case has been dismissed. It's over."

Michael Hall III, attorney for the two women, says he doesn't see a lot of cases where someone invades the privacy of someone living in his or her own home.

"This was one that was clearly unusual," says Hall. "You don't see this every day."