Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995 TAG: 9509180058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
Hubert Wayne Thompson, who was convicted earlier this year of fondling a woman who was under sedation following back surgery, received a six-month suspended jail sentence Friday from Judge Robert P. Doherty.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald Teaster had asked for the maximum sentence of 12 months on the misdemeanor charge - saying that even that would not be enough punishment for what Thompson did.
"This should really be a felony," Teaster said. "She was in the most vulnerable position that anyone could be in, and he took advantage of that."
But defense attorney Richard Lawrence said his client - who has maintained that the woman misconstrued his efforts to care for her - has been punished enough.
"He lost his job and was humiliated," Lawrence said.
At a June trial in Roanoke Circuit Court, the 31-year-old woman testified that she awoke in her hospital bed the night of Oct. 7, 1994, to find Thompson rubbing her vagina with talcum powder.
Thompson, 31, denied the woman's allegations that he fondled her. But he testified that some of her other complaints - that he changed her gown, assisted her with a bedpan and rubbed lotion on her thighs while they were alone in her hospital room - were just a part of his job.
According to court records, Thompson was previously accused of sexually abusing a patient at the hospital but was never charged. He was fired by the hospital after being convicted of sexual abuse in June.
by CNB