STANWOOD — A family on Tuesday sued a Stanwood chiropractor accused of filming their preteen daughter changing during a playdate.
The lawsuit comes a year after prosecutors charged Brandon Falk, owner of Stanwood Family Chiropractic and Massage, with first-degree voyeurism, a felony, in Island County Superior Court. Falk later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree criminal mistreatment. He served a week in jail, with another 83 days suspended.
Falk opened his practice in 2009, according to his business license. In April, the state Department of Health’s disciplinary board charged Falk with unprofessional conduct for the misdemeanor conviction, records show. His license remained active this week while the disciplinary case is pending.
His office also remained open this week.
On Thursday, Falk maintained his innocence, stating the past two years have been a “nightmare.”
“I did not intentionally take a video, I did not see a video. I can’t say whether there was a video or not because I never saw any evidence of it,” Falk said in an interview with The Daily Herald. “It was a ‘he said, she said’ battle from the front. I just keep getting dragged through the mud.”
In June 2022, the girl was at Falk’s waterfront home on Camano Island for a beach playdate with his daughter, the complaint read. At the end of the day, the girl went to Falk’s bathroom to change out of her bathing suit and discovered a phone hidden behind some shampoo bottles. She picked up the phone. It was actively recording, according to the lawsuit. She called her mom.
The girl’s mother came to the house and watched the video of her daughter along with Falk’s wife, the lawsuit alleges. When his wife confronted the defendant, he claimed he was “just trying to listen to music.”
“When we confronted Falk, it was clear to me that he knew he was caught — he refused to apologize, look at the phone or even make eye contact,” the girl’s mom wrote in a press release Tuesday.
Falk initially refused to give his phone passcode to police when they requested it, the complaint alleges.
Falk “holds a position of trust in the Stanwood community,” the plaintiff’s attorney Austin Neff said Thursday. “I think it’s pretty clear that he violated that position of trust through his actions.”
At Falk’s sentencing hearing in September 2023, deputy prosecutor Michael Safstrom said he agreed to a plea deal due to “evidentiary problems,” claiming a video could not be found on the defendant’s phone, The Whidbey News-Times reported.
Under state law, person is guilty of criminal mistreatment if a parent or guardian of a child or dependent person causes bodily injury or “extreme emotional distress.”
The girl’s family is seeking financial compensation, alleging she suffered emotional trauma as a result of the incident.
“At the very least, the family deserves more than what they got,” Neff said. “This is another avenue to pursue justice and accountability for what happened.”
Falk is represented by Seattle lawyer George Mix in the civil matter.
Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
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