Former nurse charged with raping a patient
by: BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer
12/22/2007 12:00 AM
A former St. Francis Hospital nurse was charged Friday with the rape of a patient there.
Tulsa County prosecutors charged Olayinka Osifeso, 44, with the first-degree rape of a 41-year-old woman Aug. 11 "while she was intoxicated by narcotics and in a hospital bed," records show.
Osifeso, a Broken Arrow resident, was arrested Friday in Broken Arrow and placed in the Tulsa Jail with bond set at $500,000, said Sgt. Gary Stansill, supervisor of the Tulsa Police Department's Sex Crimes Unit.
An affidavit signed by Stansill asserts that the woman awakened at the hospital, at 61st Street and Yale Avenue, to find the defendant "on top of her with his penis inside her vagina and with him fondling her breasts."
When interviewed by a detective, Osifeso "adamantly denied any sexual contact" with the woman and "later denied the possibility of his semen being anywhere" on or near her or anywhere in the hospital, the affidavit states.
Seminal fluid was recovered from a bedpad on the woman's bed. Lab analysis revealed that "the defendant's DNA matched the DNA of the semen donor on the bedpad," Stansill's affidavit alleges.
In November, the Tulsa World reported that a St. Francis nurse was fired in August after two patients reported being raped at the hospital.
The nurse -- who was not named in that news account -- was accused years ago of sexual assault, but no charges were filed and the hospital continued to employ him, the World reported then.
According to the news report, police were investigating the reported rape of a woman on Aug. 11. The second report was filed Aug. 13, but that woman said the rape occurred between July 25 and July 28, records show.
Donna Swaffar, a St. Francis spokeswoman, said Friday that Osifeso is no longer employed at the hospital.
"We do cooperate thoroughly with any investigative agencies. That is in the best interest of the patients, which is our top priority," Swaffar said.
Stansill said St. Francis was "completely cooperative" with this investigation.
In November, a civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of a patient -- identified by one of her lawyers as a 43-year-old mentally retarded woman -- who alleged that she was raped by a nurse at St. Francis while she was recovering from a medically induced coma.
That suit lists fictitious names for the woman and her mother -- her appointed guardian -- and alleges that the hospital was negligent in hiring the nurse.
Defendants in that civil case include the nurse, identified in the suit as "John Doe," who is accused of assaulting the patient between July 25 and July 28.
Stansill said police have investigated an allegation of a sexual assault at St. Francis in July. He said as a matter of policy, he could not release any name or information about a suspect because no charge has been filed in that investigation.
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