Nurse Charged with Rape of Mentally Ill Patient

  By Subha Ravindrhan

ARTESIA, July 30, 2007 (KABC-TV) (KABC) -- A nurse at a convalescent home in Artesia has been arrested after accusations that a mentally ill patient was raped. The incident allegedly happened over the weekend at the Windsor Palms convalescent home. The sheriff's department is investigating.

Officials got a call late Saturday evening about a mentally ill female patient at the Windsor Palms Care Center of Artesia who claims she had allegedly been raped by one of the male nurses.

Authorities are not releasing the name of the nurse, but say he is a 53-year-old man who attended to several patients at Windsor Palms. They do not know if the victim in this case was one of his patients.

Police say that on Saturday, the patient notified officials at the care center that she had been sexually assaulted by the male nurse. Sheriff's officials do not know where this alleged rape occurred in the facility. They contacted the suspect, interviewed him, and then took him into custody.

"During the course of the investigation, the victim was contacted and she alleged that one of male nurses at the location, who works at the location, allegedly raped her," said Sgt. Tom Burt of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. "Investigators went to the location, contacted the victim, and conducted a rape investigation. During the rape investigation, the suspect was contacted and interviewed, and he was subsequently taken into custody for a charge of rape."

Officials at Windsor Palms have no comment about this arrest. They house about 300 patients, all with mental and behavioral issues. They will not say if something like this has happened before here at this facility.

The patient is still at the facility and doing reasonably well. Authorities are right now looking to see whether there are any other victims in this case.

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