$20M Illegal Taping Lawsuit Filed Against Rams Head Group, Owner

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The owner of the Rams Head Tavern in Savage and company president -- accused of recording women in the restaurant’s bathroom – faces a second lawsuit seeking $20 million in damages over the peeping allegations.

Kyle Muehlhauser, 37, of Severna Park was charged Feb. 19 with six counts of visual surveillance with prurient (sexual) intent that occurred on May 9, 2014, according to the Howard County Police Department.

The Capital-Gazette reports Muehlhauser is the president of the Rams Head Group, which operates the nightspots in Annapolis, Savage, Hanover/Maryland Live!, Baltimore, Annapolis and Stevensville.

SEE ALSO:

• Rams Head Tavern Exec ‘Sickened’ by Peeping Charges: Reports
• Rams Head Faces Class Action Suit
• Columbia Mall Peeping Tom Charged in Bathroom Recordings
• Georgetown Rabbi Pleads Guilty to 52 Counts of Voyeurism
• Police Accuse Columbia Man of Recording Ellicott City Women

The investigation began last spring after a video camera fell on the floor next to a woman in the bathroom at Rams Head Tavern in Savage, which Muehlhauser owns, police said.

After his arrest, a Laurel woman who said she visited the Savage Mill tavern a dozen times in the month before the camera was found filed a lawsuit seeking $3 million in punitive damages, according to NBC Washington. She filed a class action suit against Muehlhauser and Rams Head, the news station reported.

Police said none of the six women were identifiable in the restroom recording.

In the latest lawsuit, three women said they were customers who used the restrooms at Rams Head’s Savage Mill location between January and May of 2014. The Capital-Gazette reports the women charge their expectation of privacy was violated. Their lawsuit says they suffered humiliation, anxiety and distress because of the videotaping.

In a Feb. 26 statement Muehlhauser said he was “embarrassed and humiliated” by the criminal case. The Baltimore Sun reported Muehlhauser would assume an administrative role within the company instead of being on-site at venues while he faces legal problems.

“I am very respectful of the 25-year Rams Head tradition and am sickened this incident has caused pain for others,” he said.

Surveillance video from the restaurant in Savage showed a man matching Muehlhauser’s description mounting the camera in the bathroom, according to police. Authorities obtained lab results with DNA that matched his.

Muehlhauser turned himself in to police on Feb. 19, and was released from the Howard County Detention Center on $35,000 bond the next day, police reported.

On Feb. 24, prosecutors added six misdemeanor counts of peeping Tom violations for the same alleged incidents, the Sun reports.

»Photo of Kyle Muehlhauser courtesy of Howard County Police Department.