A Rochester Hills district court judge has imposed a gag order on prosecutors and defense attorneys from discussing charges against a local doctor accused of recording children and adults while nude or semi-nude in changing rooms at a Goldfish Swim School.

Judge Nancy Carniak said during a hearing Monday in 52-3 District Court that comments made at an August press conference about the charges against Dr. Oumair Aejaz of Rochester Hills by Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and Prosecutor Karen McDonald were “inflammatory and sensationalized.”

Carniak said the press conference, where Bouchard and McDonald announced the first set of charges against Aejaz, was widely seen and was reported on statewide, nationally and internationally. The most prejudicial comments have been repeatedly posted online, sometimes in headlines, and are repeated in lawsuits, she said.

“The sheriff made statements that left little doubt to the defendant’s guilt or innocence,” Carniak said. “These statements cannot be unmade or unheard. … The restraining order is necessary to prevent danger and harm in this case.”Aejaz is now facing 31 charges for a range of alleged offenses, including to the alleged sexual assaults of a now-6-year-old girl, which authorities say he recorded, and recording nude people at Goldish Swim School and other unidentified places. He’s charged with:

Two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Four counts of aggravated child sexually abusive activity.

Nine counts of capturing or distributing images of an unclothed person.

Thirteen counts of using a computer to commit a crime.

Two more counts of using a computer to commit a crime and two counts of capturing or distributing images of an unclothed person were added to Aejaz’s case Monday morning in Rochester. Assistant Prosecutor Dillon Salge did not say what the new charges were related to, and prosecutor spokesperson Gabby Klos did not respond for comment about the charges.

Mariell Lehman, Aejaz’s attorney, requested the gag order. She said Carniak has previously warned prosecutors about their out-of-court comments, and renewed her request for a gag order based on comments made last week after a new set of charges were filed Thursday in Novi’s 52-1 District Court against Aejaz.

Lehman said before Aejaz even found out about his new charges, the media was already publishing stories about the case. The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office sent out a press release about the charges Thursday afternoon, which Lehman said was “within hours” of a police officer appearing in court to ask a judge to sign the warrant.

Lehman said the information released to the media so far has “impeded and eroded” Aejaz’s rights. She said the prosecutor’s office has shown they will not stop releasing information without a court order.

“I am asking the court to protect Dr. Aejaz’s constitutional rights,” Lehman said.

But Salge told Carniak that the gag order’s benefit would be one-sided and harmful in the long run.

“This case is unique and extreme,” Salge said, adding that police will probably never truly know how many people may have been victimized by Aejaz. “Here the entire community has been victimized by the defendant’s conduct. He victimized his own family, his wife and his kids. He preyed on the public at large… Issuing a gag order is not in the best interest of the community.”

Salge said there has already been misinformation spread about the case and the public needs to be able to find reliable information. He said the prosecutor’s office wants to make sure Aejaz isn’t being accused in the press or on social media of acts that the prosecutor’s office has not said he did.

“The evidence shows the defendant had an apparent compulsive need to film people without their knowledge,” Salge said.

The gag order bars the sheriff and prosecutor’s offices from making any public statements about Aejaz or the allegations against him, Carniak said. They can only make statements as necessary to protect the public, and those statements cannot include details or comments.

At an August press conference, Bouchard said the initial charges against Aejaz were “the tip of the iceberg.”

“The victimization is so broad and the perversion is so great that we’re just beginning to wrap our arms around it. It’s disturbing on so many levels,” he said.

Aejaz also is one of the subjects of two class-action lawsuits in Wayne and Macomb counties. The suits are also filed against Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital and Henry Ford Macomb Hospital.

He is also being sued in Oakland County by two young women who he allegedly recorded changing into their swimsuits at Goldfish Swim School in Rochester.