Erie Insurance Company asked a judge to rule that it doesn’t have to continue defending two policy holders in a civil suit filed by a young woman who claims a hidden camera was aimed at the bed where she slept as she watched the couple’s dog and house while they were on vacation.

At the conclusion of a hearing Thursday, July 31, Butler County Common Pleas Court Judge Kelley Streib said she would issue her ruling in at least 30 days on Erie Insurance’s motion for judgment against policy holders Jacob Thiel and Crysta Ganter, and the house sitter Shiloh Feeney, who was 19 when the incident took place at the couple’s home in Valencia in June 2022.

In January 2024, Thiel, 30, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct filed by Middlesex Township police following the incident, and was sentenced to serve 12 months of probation, including three months of house arrest, complete 50 hours of community service, and have no contact with the victim.

Police did not file charges against Ganter.

Erie Insurance attorney Dennis Chow argued Thursday that Thiel placed the cameras in the house, and that eliminates coverage for him and Ganter, even though she might not have known what Thiel did.

Attorney Michael DeRiso, who represents Thiel and Ganter, said Erie Insurance acknowledges that count two of Feeney’s suit that alleges negligence against Thiel and Ganter would usually require coverage under their policy, but are arguing her suit alleges intentional and willful actions that are excluded from coverage.

Attorney Kenneth Nolan, who represents Feeney, argued that the insurance policy is ambiguous.

The policy includes personal injury liability coverage, but Erie wants to exclude that coverage because the alleged conduct was intentional. However, the personal liability coverage in the policy includes coverage for invasion of privacy, which is an intentional act, Nolan said.

Feeney’s suit, filed in May 2023 against Thiel and Ganter, contains claims of invasion of privacy and negligent infliction of emotional distress. That suit remains pending.

Shortly before June 10, 2022, Feeney agreed to Thiel and Ganter’s request to stay in their home to watch their dog and home for a week while they were on vacation. Ganter told Feeney to stay in the guest bedroom and told her she could have friends sleep over, according to the suit.

From June 10 to 13, Feeney changed her clothes next to the bed in the guest room twice a day and her boyfriend stayed with her June 12 and 13, according to the suit.

On the night of June 13, she said she discovered a “hidden spy camera” mounted on a wall under a TV and pointed at the bed, and unplugged the camera.

The next day, she found another camera in the living room pointed at the couch and unplugged it. Within 10 minutes of unplugging that camera, Thiel called Feeney on her cellphone. She said that was the first time he had ever contacted her and she didn’t know his phone number, according to the suit.

Feeney was naked or partially naked several times in the guest room before she found the camera, and she said she believes the camera was recording and/or transmitting videos of her, according to the suit.

Ganter sent Feeney a text message apologizing for the presence of the cameras and said the cameras were not recording. On June 14, Feeney was shaking, crying and upset about the cameras and left work early due to her emotional state, according to the suit.

Feeney said she suffers from mental anguish, humiliation, post-traumatic stress, nightmares, insomnia and insecurity as a result of the cameras.

Feeney said she believes Thiel set up the cameras with Ganter’s permission, according to the suit.

In their response to the suit, Thiel and Ganter denied many of the allegations, but admitted there was a camera in the guest room and both cameras were capable of transmitting remotely to a cellphone. They denied viewing videos and said Thiel deleted the app from his phone.