Seattle hospital worker charged with sexually assaulting woman with CP

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Prosecutors have filed sex crime charges against a Harborview Medical Center respiratory therapist, claiming the man sexually assaulted a cerebral palsy-stricken woman while she was on a ventilator.

An employee of 19 years with the Seattle hospital, Richard Mark Garcia, 51, has been charged with one count of indecent liberties on allegations that he assaulted the woman days after she'd been placed on a ventilator. Prosecutors gave these details.

The woman, who could not speak due to the breathing tube placed in her throat, told Seattle police she had been admitted to Harborview in early September after she came down with pneumonia. Staff there performed a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe but, in doing so, silenced her.

Recounting the incident by way of a computer keyboard, the woman told investigators Garcia came to her room eight days after she was admitted to the hospital.

Garcia approached her bed, exposed himself and proceeded to force her to touch him in a sexual matter, prosecutors allege. He returned the following day and touched the woman inappropriately.

As he left the room, the woman told investigators, Garcia spoke to her.

"We work well together," he allegedly told her.

The woman reported the incident to her care provider, who then called Seattle police. Officers seized the sheets from the woman's hospital room, later located Garcia's semen on them, prosecutors claim.

Confronted by detectives the following day, Garcia denied the woman's allegations, Detective Kevin Grossman said in court documents.

Grossman said it was apparent to him that Garcia erroneously believed the woman's mental abilities were impaired by her condition. His tune changed, Grossman said, after learning of the physical evidence in the case.

"He hesitated and then explained that (the woman) had 'come on to him sexually, and that he had rebuffed her," Grossman said in court documents. "In essence, he shifted from portraying (her) as a helpless, mentally-impaired invalid to a scheming, sex-starved woman."

Garcia left his employment at Harborview in mid-September, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said. Though the woman's complaint was made around that time, Gregg-Hanson said she could not discuss the reason for Garcia's departure.

King County prosecutors have charged Garcia with a single count of indecent liberties, a sex crime requiring community registration. He is scheduled to surrender to the King County Jail following an arraignment on Nov. 23.

The state Department of Health is also investigating the allegations.