The UCLA Medical Center employee who improperly looked at 61 patients’ medical records in 2006 and 2007, including those of California first lady Maria Shriver, actress Farrah Fawcett and pop star Britney Spears, told the Los Angeles Times she was just “nosy” and meant no harm.

“Clearly I made a mistake; let’s put it like that,” Lawanda J. Jackson, 49, told the newspaper in a telephone interview. She further wanted to clarify that her intentions had nothing to do with money. “I don’t leak anything or anything like that. It wasn’t for money or anything. It was just looking.” However, according to court records, Jackson and her husband, victor, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, listing assets of less than $23,000 and liabilities of 37,300.

“It was more of a curiosity. It was just me being nosy…It wasn’t to do anything to anybody. I don’t even remember half the stud I even looked at. There was no intent to do anything bad,” Jackson told the Times.

Jackson was an administrative specialist who had worked at the hospital for 32 years, until last year, when she was fired due to her “curiosity.”

Unfortunately violating someone’s privacy exposes UCLA to sanctions from the California Department of Public Health and amount to a major embarrassment for one of the nation’s preeminent medical centers. In addition, Jackson could face criminal charges for allegedly violating a federal law. In California, the privacy of medical records is protected under the state and federal laws.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself a “victim” of this kind of violations in his hospital visits said he has already called on his administration to take action against the UCLA Medical Center so these things would never happen. “A breach of any patient’s medical records is outrageous. Patients’ medical records should be private – period. No one should have to worry that an unauthorized person is reviewing their private medical records,” he said in a statement released after he and his wife were notified about the violations.

Dr. David Feinberg, chief executive of the UCLA Hospital System personally apologized for the breaches, naming Jackson as “rogue." "This person should not have been looking at those records,” he said.

He also added that the hospital now plans to notify all the patients, whose medical records had been violated, a task that the hospital should have done in the first place. But it considered at the time to veil in silence what seems to be today a huge scandal.