(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
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Nursing home rape suspect was the subject of prior police complaints [1]
['Clark Kauffman', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01-10
The western Iowa man suspected of sexually assaulting an Iowa nursing home resident was the subject of a prior police complaint that “fell off the radar” without being pursued by authorities, according to police officials.
The alleged rape of the Correctionville Specialty Care resident last October is currently under investigation and no charges have been filed in the matter.
State inspection reports show the alleged victim in the Correctionville case told management at the home in October 2023 that a 36-year-old male certified nursing assistant had sent her a video of himself masturbating. Later, she alleged, the man took her to his car in the facility’s parking lot, told her he was a musician, played some of his music to her, offered her a drink of Seagram’s Crown Royal from a bottle he kept in his car, and then forced her to have oral sex with him. According to state inspectors, the alleged rape victim is not cognitively impaired.
After the woman reported the alleged rape, officials at Correctionville Specialty Care evicted the woman from the facility and dropped her off at a homeless shelter, according to state inspectors. The home’s parent company, Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, continued to provide work for the man in other Iowa nursing homes that it operates, inspectors found.
Seven months before the alleged rape, in March 2023, the suspect in the case was working through a temp agency at Friendship Home in Audubon when a female co-worker complained to management that the man had been making suggestive remarks to his female colleagues, sent them photos of himself masturbating, videotaped one of them while providing care for a resident, and had invited some of them out to his car where he kept a bottle of Crown Royal.
The complainant provided the Iowa Capital Dispatch with screenshots of the man’s texts, which included two photos of a man’s genitals and two photos of a man holding a bottle of Crown Royal inside a vehicle. The complainant said she alerted the management at Friendship Home, which immediately terminated the man’s employment, as well as state officials and Audubon city police.
Audubon Police Chief Coby Gust confirmed that at least two Friendship Home workers complained to his agency about the man’s conduct. They provided text messages and photos and expressed concern that the man’s behavior could spill over into his interactions with vulnerable residents, Gust said.
No charges were filed in the case.
“It kind of just fell off the radar as far as anything being pursued,” Gust said Wednesday, adding that after the CNA’s employment at Friendship Home ended, the man seemed to “disappear.” Gust added that his department recently shared information on the Audubon case with the authorities investigating the alleged Correctionville rape.
The Iowa Capital Dispatch is not naming the suspect because he has not been criminally charged in either of the criminal investigations. The suspect did not respond to several calls and text messages from the Capital Dispatch over the past seven days.
State records show the suspect was working for Pete Howe Sanitation in 2017 when he was fired for keeping a bottle of Crown Royal in his work vehicle. Several months later, in May 2018, he was certified as a nursing assistant and was cleared by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services to work in care facilities.
His certification remains active and he is currently employed, according to the state’s public database of certified nursing assistants.
Court records show that before working as a CNA, the man was convicted of disorderly conduct, interference with official acts and public intoxication in 2014. That same year, he was convicted of harassment for allegedly telling a woman’s family and co-workers about “an affair” of some kind, according to court records.
Court records indicate in August 2022, a temporary protective order was issued against the man after a woman alleged he had severely beaten her and that he had sent her a text saying he was going to “get” her. The order was canceled a few weeks later after a judge ruled the victim was unable to show evidence of an assault and that the suspect’s conduct “may be considered harassing in nature but not assaultive.”
That same month, the man was arrested after a police officer reported seeing him repeatedly punch a man who was on the ground. Charges of disorderly conduct by violent behavior and possession of drug paraphernalia were later dropped when the man agreed to plead guilty to an open-container violation.
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services assists with background checks on employees the agency has authorized to work in licensed health care facilities. Individuals who have a history of abuse or criminal activity are evaluated by DHHS personnel to assess the nature and gravity of the offenses.
DHHS spokesman Alex Carfrae declined to comment on the department’s decision to authorize any specific individual to work in Iowa care facilities, citing laws that he said prohibit the department from explaining such actions. Asked twice to specify the laws to which he was referring, Carfrae did not respond.
He said DHHS evaluators typically consider the position being sought by a care facility applicant as well as the time elapsed since the offenses were committed, the number of prior offenses, the circumstances surrounding each incident and the likelihood the person will reoffend.
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