A nursing assistant at a medical facility in Rochelle Park, New Jersey has been charged with sexually assaulting a disabled man under his care. 53-year-old Rodney Mills is charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a disabled person.
Mills is accused of sexually assaulting the patient at the Rochelle Park medical facility on September 27. Prosecutors have not released the name of the facility.
Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella released a statement following the arrest: “The Rochelle Park Police Department received information that (Mills) intimately touched a disabled person and had that person intimately touch him.”
Mills was arrested on Tuesday, October 15, and was booked at the Bergen County Jail, where he was ordered held without bond.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office’s Special Victims Unit and Rochelle Park police collaborated in this investigation.
Attorney contributor Guy D'Andrea is a former sex crimes prosecutor and a sex abuse victim lawyer. Brian has offered to share some general information on the legal rights of those who have been sexually assaulted by nursing aides and other healthcare workers:
For healthcare facilities, the safety of patients must come before all else. Along with making sure these patients get the quality of healthcare they need and deserve, these facilities must also make sure that patients are safe from the threat of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Sadly, there have been numerous cases of patients being sexually assaulted by employees, other patients, and intruders in healthcare facilities.
When a patient is sexually assaulted by a nursing assistant or another healthcare worker, the worker is not the only one that should be investigated. It’s also important to look at the facility and determine if the assault could have been prevented by better safety protocols. In some cases, these assaults only happen due to negligence by the medical facility.
In cases involving negligence, medical facility sexual assault victims may have grounds for a sexual assault lawsuit.
If you or a loved one is a victim of sexual assault at a medical facility, you can better understand your legal options by speaking with one of our experienced sexual assault victims lawyers in a free consultation.