Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140120
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
According to records filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, Hubert Wayne Thompson was given a spoken reprimand and told to avoid female patients after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her at the hospital.
That incident happened sometime before last Oct. 7, when a second patient told police that she was sexually abused in a hospital bed after she had undergone surgery at Roanoke Memorial.
Thompson, who is scheduled to be tried Wednesday on a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery, is accused of taking advantage of the patient's ``physical helplessness'' caused by anesthesia.
In a motion filed Monday, defense attorney Richard Lawrence asked a judge to prohibit prosecutors from making any mention of the prior complaint during Thompson's trial. Such information would ``unduly prejudice the jury,'' Lawrence maintained in the motion.
Hospital officials declined to comment on the earlier complaint of sexual assault against Thompson. ``That's a personnel issue that we can't get into,'' said Lucas Snipes, senior vice president at Carilion Health Systems.
Thompson has returned to work at Roanoke Memorial after being placed on suspension after the second patient's complaint.
Thompson, 31, of Montvale, is working full time in the hospital's warehouse and material management department, and does not have contact with patients, Snipes said. A final decision on his status will not be made until after the criminal proceeding is resolved.
Hospital officials say Thompson had worked as a patient care aide - which includes helping patients in and out of bed and performing basic duties such as taking their temperature and blood pressure - since 1987.
No ruling has been made on whether a jury will be told of the previous complaint against Thompson. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald Teaster declined to say Monday whether he will attempt to introduce that complaint as evidence. Lawrence also declined to comment.
Although hospital officials would not say what the outcome of the earlier investigation was, Thompson discounted the woman's allegations in an interview last November with police Detective M.S. Rubeiz.
``I rubbed lotion on her shoulders. She said I tried to sexually assault her,'' Thompson told the detective in an 11-page statement that was filed as an exhibit to Lawrence's motion.
After the woman complained, an investigation was conducted by hospital supervisors and a patient representative, Thompson told police. ``The girl gave three different stories,'' he said. ``So all they did was move me off the floor till her and her husband left.''
Pressed for details, Thompson added that he was given a spoken reprimand and told ``just to be careful and pretty much stay away from female patients.''
Most of Thompson's statement to Rubeiz dealt with the more-recent complaint that led to the criminal charge against him. After being released from the hospital in October, the woman called police and said that a male nursing assistant had fondled her and pulled her hospital gown off to expose her breasts.
Thompson told police that he did have physical contact with the patient, to dry her off and put baby powder on her after she used a bedpan, but that it occurred only after she gave permission.
According to Thompson's statement, he also changed the woman's hospital gown for her, again after she gave permission.
Thompson told police that he rubbed lotion on the woman's back and lower legs, but denied allegations that he fondled her genitals.
Snipes said the hospital generally follows a policy of asking patients if they would prefer an employee of the same sex to perform tasks such as bathing and dressing them.
``If a patient is uncomfortable with a male performing any task, we always find a female to take care of her, or vice versa,'' Snipes said.
Thompson - who faces a maximum punishment of 12 months in jail - told Rubeiz that he knew of no such practice, but added, ``I'm going to make my own policy.''
``I'm going to stay with the male patients,'' he said. ``If I have any female patients, if they need the bedpan, I'm going to get a licensed person, another person, to do it.''
by CNB