TRUE CRIME: Nurse pleads not guilty of rape and impregnating woman in vegetative state


 

On Tuesday, the nurse arrested in the rape of an incapacitated woman who gave birth at a long-term health care facility in Phoenix pleaded not guilty in court.

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Nathan Sutherland was arrested and charged on Jan. 23 after authorities say he impregnated a woman who was in a vegetative state. She delivered a baby at the Hacienda HealthCare facility. Sutherland submitted to a DNA test under a court order and was found to be a match to the baby, NBC News reports.

“There’s no direct evidence that Mr. Sutherland has committed these acts,” his attorney David Gregan said. “I know at this point there’s DNA. But he will have a right to his own DNA expert.”

Sutherland faces charges of suspicion of sexual assault and vulnerable adult abuse for the assault of the 29-year-old woman who had been a patient at the facility for the last 10 years.

The nonverbal woman has ‘”no capacity to resist or even cry out,” he lawyer said. Workers at the facility became aware she was giving birth when she started moaning. Since the sexual assault, the Hacienda HealthCare facility “increased security measures to ensure the safety of all our patients.”

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The Phoenix Police Department immediately started investigating the case and ordered DNA samples of employees who possibly had access to care for the woman.

Sutherland was a licensed practical nurse and had worked at the facility since 2011. He provided care to the unnamed woman around the time she became pregnant, police said. He was fired after being found that he was a match and arrested.

Hacienda’s CEO, Bill Timmons, stepped down Jan. 7. A doctor also resigned in the wake of the sexual assault revelation and another was suspended.

Sutherland is reportedly due back in court March 19.

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