Nurse Rapes and Impregnates Incapacitated Patient, Sentenced to 10 Years

The former nurse who allegedly raped and impregnated an incapacitated woman at a health care facility was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Dec. 2.

Nathan Sutherland was arrested and charged in 2019 for allegedly sexually assaulting the unnamed woman at Hacienda HealthCare in Phoenix, Arizona. He is accused of raping the comatose woman, who was 29-years-old at the time, after police matched his DNA to the baby boy the victim gave birth to on December 29. Staff at the center were unaware she was pregnant until she went into labor.

Per MadameNoire, after serving his time, Sutherland will be on lifetime probation and required to register as a sex offender.

“It’s hard to imagine a more vulnerable adult than the victim in this case,” Superior Court Judge Margaret LaBianc said at Sutherland’s sentencing.

The victim had been living at Hacienda HealthCare since she was 3-years-old. According to her family, she suffers from “intellectual disabilities as a result of seizures early in her childhood,” NBC News reports. The woman is unable to speak and has limited mobility. 

In court on Thursday, Sutherland apologized to the victim and her family.

“To the victim, I am sorry,” Sutherland said. “You didn’t deserve to be hurt no matter what was going on in my personal life and the demons I was fighting. I had no right to put you through that.”

The woman’s child is being cared for by her family. 

Sutherland was fired from Hacienda after his arrest. The company said it was “troubled beyond words,” as he had passed an extensive background check.

“Once again, we offer an apology and send our deepest sympathies to the client and her family, to the community and to our agency partners at every level,” Hacienda said in a statement at the time.

Sutherland was charged with one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse, according to court records.