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In a Phoenix retirement home, a nurse was assigned to a woman in a vegetative state who was raped and gave birth to a child. She was charged on Wednesday with sexual assault, police said.
The Phoenix Police Department on Tuesday interrogated nurse Nathan Sutherland, 36, to question him in the case, and took a sample of DNA corresponding to that of the child, a boy born on December 29th. Sutherland was arrested on Wednesday morning at Maricopa County Jail under a charge of sexual assault and a head of mistreatment of vulnerable adults, police said.
"Through a combination of good old-fashioned police work, analyzing the evidence, talking to people and keeping track of information associated with the wonders of DNA technology, we were able to identify and develop the probable causes of arrest of a suspect, "said Jeri L. Williams, chief of the police department, at a press conference Wednesday. [19659002] The detectives began to focus on Mr. Sutherland as he was part of the medical staff at the retirement home, Hacienda HealthCare, who had been responsible for taking care of the woman at about the same time the police were thinking. have been assaulted. The woman was in the retirement home since 1992 and since then she was in the same state, unable to communicate or move, according to medical records. A family lawyer said Wednesday that they were aware of the arrest but had no comment to make.
Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse, had been working in Hacienda since 2011 and was still working there Tuesday, police said. He was fired shortly after his arrest, the company said Wednesday.
For nearly a month, the details of the case have seized the Phoenix area and confused Hacienda HealthCare, a leading health care provider for severely disabled people in the state, scandal as Chief Williams made this case the Ministry's main investigation concern. The repercussions were immense in Hacienda, forcing the long-time president of the company to resign and to make it the center of many investigations.
"Every member of the Hacienda organization is deeply troubled to think that a licensed practical nurse is able to seriously harm a patient," company officials said in a statement. "Once again, we apologize and extend our deepest condolences to the client and her family, to the community and partners of our agency at all levels."
M. Sutherland had "undergone a thorough background check when hiring," the company said. The company recently announced that it had hired Rick Romley, the former Attorney General of Maricopa County, to conduct an internal review of the assault and how it might have gone unnoticed.
Since its inception in the late 1970s, Hacienda HealthCare has become one of the largest private care providers in Arizona for people with severe cognitive and physical disabilities, mostly operating from 39, a single campus about six miles south of downtown Phoenix. According to the company, it manages more than 40 programs through its subsidiaries, serving more than 2,000 people each year.
Although Hacienda is a private company, some of its activities benefit from public funding, including $ 230 million from Medicaid. State records show since 2010.
As part of the investigation, detectives began collecting DNA samples from all male employees of Hacienda at Beginning of the month. Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police, said Sutherland had offered a DNA sample only after being informed by court order and that he had invoked his right to under the Fifth Amendment not to self-incriminate when he had been arrested.
. Sutherland's DNA sample, taken on Tuesday, was "verified, double-checked, triple-verified, quadruple-verified" by the department's judicial police laboratory prior to Sutherland's arrest, Sgt. Thompson said .
woman in the middle of the case, no longer worked in the retirement home. Last week, Arizona's health care cost containment system, which runs the state's Medicaid program, informed one of the doctors, Thanh Nguyen, that it had been suspended. and could not work at Hacienda or at any other institution supported by Medicaid in the state. 19659002] The state accused Dr. Nguyen of having placed "the health and welfare of AHCCCS members at risk," according to a state letter obtained by The New York Times. The suspension only applies to work in Medicaid-supported centers in the state
State records show that it also operates a group of medical consultants who have contracted with the Department of Veterans Services of the United States. Arizona to treat veterans and their families Neither Dr. Nguyen nor a spokesperson for the Veterans Department responded to requests for comments received on Wednesday, and efforts to join the group of consultants failed.
Another doctor involved in the treatment of the woman resigned from Hacienda last week, the company said Wednesday.The company refused to publicly identify the person.
Despite a team From doctors and nurses assigned to the woman, staff at the center were shocked by the fact that she was pregnant. In a frantic 911 call to Hacienda on December 29 that the police recently released, a woman announced that a baby had just given birth and was in distress.
On Wednesday, Sergeant Thompson stated that the boy was in jail. is fine
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