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A former traveling nurse was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday after admitting he raped a woman in January 2021 at Methodist Hospitals in Gary with broken bones from a car wreck.
Timothy Jerome Jackson, 54, will serve the sentence in the Indiana Department of Correction without alternative placement.
He faced up to 7 1/2 years under his plea for Level 3 felony rape. Indiana law requires inmates to serve at least 75% of their sentence.
His nursing license expired in October 2021, state records show.
The victim sued Jackson, Methodist Hospitals and OneStaff Medical in January 2023. The complaint is under seal.
A Methodist Hospitals spokeswoman previously declined to comment on pending litigation. He was “immediately removed” after the allegations, she said previously.
Judge Salvador Vasquez said the rape was a “horrendous” violation of trust.
First on the stand, Clarence Greer, Jackson’s friend of over 30 years, said Jackson lost his nursing career and was salvaging his life.
Decades earlier, he had encouraged Jackson to leave trucking and go back to school to get his associate’s nursing degree. Now, he was helping Greer fix up houses in Gary.
Jackson was deeply remorseful about what he did, Greer told Jackson’s defense lawyer Angela Jones.
“This ain’t about blowing smoke,” he told Vasquez. “I saw a broken man in my living room.”
It was an “egregious” mistake,” Greer said.
Deputy Prosecutor Tara Villarreal read a letter from the victim.
A probable cause affidavit alleged Jackson withheld pain medication until the woman — screaming in agony — let him assault her.
Jackson targeted her thinking “because of who I am, no one would believe me,” she wrote.
He then said he would see her on his next shift. She was “so scared” he would assault her again and reported what happened.
“No one believed me” at Methodist, she alleged.
Two days after the assault, she left the hospital. That meant many of her injuries didn’t heal properly, she wrote.
It was “impossible to forget what happened to me,” she wrote. “I don’t know if I’ll ever heal.”
Jones said she hadn’t seen a client “say more bluntly” what he did. Jackson lost his “career,” “reputation” and “dignity.”
He had almost no criminal history, lost his professional license and “blew his whole life up,” Jones said.
She asked for three years — with a mix of community corrections and probation.
Villarreal noted he is now legally considered a “sexually violent predator” and would have to register as a sex offender.
He violated his “fiduciary duty” and “Hippocratic oath,” she said. The hospital should be a “safe place.”
In her deposition, the victim said she never once consented, Villarreal said. Yes, the woman left the facility, the prosecutor said.
“Any reasonable person would not want to stay in a hospital where they were just raped,” she said. Nurses “took the side of their co-worker,” Villarreal said.
A rape kit found Jackson’s DNA on her. There was “no question” it happened, the prosecutor said.
Vasquez asked Villarreal who called the police. At some point, the hospital did, she said.
This was a “great regret, at this stage of my life,” Jackson told the court.
He had a “broken spirit” and “took full responsibility,” apologizing and asking the victim — who was not in court — to forgive him.
Vasquez accepted the plea.
Jackson had factors in his favor — including people speaking for him, a lack of criminal history, and his efforts to fix up houses.
However, it was akin to a teacher abusing a child in a school, he said. A nurse is supposed to protect people. What he did meant prison time.
“It has to be a message to you,” Vasquez said, “to anyone paying attention.”
The woman was hospitalized on Jan. 27, 2021 for a car wreck at Methodist, where she was recovering from a broken right leg, right arm, left arm, fractured ribs and punctured lung, an affidavit states.
She was screaming around 4 a.m. for her pain medication when Jackson came into her room, asking, “What are you going to do for it?'” charges allege.
After she asked him what he meant, he closed the blinds and made a motion with his mouth indicating a sex act and unzipped his pants.
Johnson assaulted the woman, then raised up the hospital bed and raped her, the affidavit states.
“This is what you’re going to do, or you’re not getting no pain medicine,” he said during one assault, the court document said.
Jackson was a traveling nurse employed by One Staff Medical at Methodist, court records say. He denied any sexual contact with the victim to Gary police, documents state.
DNA from a rape kit matched to the victim and Jackson, records state.
mcolias@post-trib.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/01/06/former-nurse-gets-seven-years-for-raping-patient-at-methodist-in-gary/
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