Authorities in Arizona have released the mugshot of the man accused of raping and impregnating an incapacitated patient at a Phoenix-area nursing facility.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Nathan Sutherland, 36, a nurse at Hacienda HealthCare, was arrested this week after a DNA sample implicated him in the sexual assault of a 29-year-old patient who has been reported to be in a persistent vegetative state, though her attorney recently gave an interview stating that she has some mobility and the ability to recognize family members.
JUST IN: Officials release the mugshot of 36-year-old Nathan Sutherland, who was arrested in connection to the sexual assault, birth of a baby at Hacienda Healthcare. STORY: https://t.co/QT556DPZwU #abc15 pic.twitter.com/bvVGcwXULb
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) January 23, 2019
Phoenix police announced the arrest in a news conference Wednesday morning, one day after they took a DNA sample from Sutherland. According to an ABC News report, Sutherland was no longer employed at the facility when authorities issued a court order for a DNA sample. The conditions and the exact timing of his departure from Hacienda HealthCare are not known. Authorities said at Wednesday’s news conference that Sutherland began working at the facility in 2011.
The patient gave birth at Hacienda HealthCare on December 29, and a staff member who contacted 911 to report a newborn in distress told the dispatcher that she and her co-workers were not previously aware that the patient was pregnant. The infant, reportedly a boy, is in the care of the patient’s family.
Sutherland is in custody, reportedly facing preliminary charges of sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult.
