US: Police arrest nurse in vegetative state birth case

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - An arrest has been made in connection to the sexual assault of a woman who gave birth in a vegetative state at a healthcare facility in Arizona, police said Wednesday.

Nathan Sutherland, 36, a licensed practical nurse and employee at Hacienda Healthcare was was booked in Maricopa County Jail and faces one charge of sexual assault and one charge of vulnerable adult abuse.

Sutherland was the nurse responsible for providing care to the woman in the vegetative state, according to police.

The arrest follows a weeks-long investigation into possible sexual abuse after the unnamed patient in a long-term coma at Hacienda Healthcare in Maricopa County gave birth late last month.

"From the minute we became aware of this crime, the sexual assault, we have worked virtually non stop everyday, every night, seven days a week trying to solve and resolve this case," Phoenix Chief Jeri Williams said in a press conference.

"The fact that this horrible crime happened is beyond reproach," she added.

DNA technology was a key to the arrest, the police chief said.

Hacienda Healthcare has come under heavy scrutiny since news broke about the incident and subsequent police investigation.

Earlier this month, the CEO of the nursing facility, Bill Timmons, resigned amid the investigation.

Hacienda "will accept nothing less than a full accounting of this absolutely horrifying situation, an unprecedented case that has devastated everyone involved, from the victim and her family to Hacienda staff at every level of our organization," Hacienda board member Gary Orman said in a statement.

Two of the physicians responsible for caring for the woman are no longer working at Hacienda Healthcare, according to a local report.

"This is a facility that you should be safe in and someone wasn’t," Phoenix Mayor Thelda Williams said.