(CMR) A licensed practical nurse who was supposed to care for a woman in a vegetative state at a long-term Arizona nursing facility was arrested after she gave birth to a baby last month, officials announced Wednesday.
Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said at a news conference that 36-year-old Nathan Sutherland was arrested and will be charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse for the incident at the Hacienda Healthcare facility in Phoenix.
“We have worked virtually nonstop every day, every night to resolve this case,” Williams told reporters, adding that the crime was “beyond reproach.”
Sutherland invoked his Fifth Amendment rights after his arrest and did not give an interview to authorities regarding the case, according to police.
The chief said that officers used “good old-fashioned police work” in addition to DNA tests on the baby to find a match and made the arrest. Sutherland had worked at the facility since 2011, officials added.
“We owed this arrest fo the victim, we owed this arrest of the newest member of our community, that innocent baby,” Williams said.
The 29-year-old victim has been incapacitated since the age of 3 and gave birth to a boy at the facility on Dec. 29. Employees at the time said they had no idea she was pregnant. Court records say her last known physical was in April.
“We may not know how many times this occurred,” Phoenix police spokesman Tommy Thompson told reporters. Investigators had obtained a court order to collect DNA from Sutherland, which was compared to DNA from the baby boy.
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