http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/02/25/2010-02-25_arrest_nears_of_kings_county_hospital_psychiatr ic_unit_employee_in_rape_of_disab.html

Arrest nears of Kings County hospital psychiatric unit employee in rape of disabled male patient

BY John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, February 25th 2010, 2:00 PM
An employee at the scandal-ridden Kings County Hospital psychiatric unit is being eyed in the rape of a developmentally disabled, deaf and mute patient.

The NYPD is close to arresting an employee at Kings County Hospital's new psychiatric unit for allegedly raping a disabled male patient in the shower, the Daily News has learned.

Sources said Thursday that the victim is developmentally disabled, deaf and mute. He reported the sexual attack two weeks ago to relatives, who notified hospital staff.

It happened a month after the city agreed to court-supervised monitoring of the facility in the wake of overcrowding, filthy conditions and excessive force against patients.

Detectives from the NYPD Special Victims squad have been poring over surveillance video and awaiting forensic results, sources said. The employee could be charged as early as Thursday afternoon.

Last year, the city opened a $153 million psychiatric unit at Kings County to replace the notorious G Building where deplorable conditions were documented in a federal suit filed by the state Mental Hygiene Legal Service and New York Civil Liberties Union.

That suit led to the recent consent decree between the city and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

"This is the most serious incident in the new facility," a knowledgeable source said of the alleged sex assault.

Brooklyn Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto had ordered city lawyers to report back on provisions for screening employees of the psychiatric unit.

The News reported this month that a patient at Bronx Psychiatric Center was allegedly molested by an employee who is a registered sex offender in Florida.

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Disabled Man Assaulted at Hospital, Police Say
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT NYT February 25, 2010

A custodian in Kings County Hospital Center’s psychiatric unit, which was recently placed under federal monitoring after a series of troubling incidents, was arrested on Thursday on charges of sexually assaulting a deaf, mute and mentally disabled patient.

Investigators said the custodian, Larry J. Taylor, 30, attacked the 28-year-old patient on Feb. 11 as he took a shower. Mr. Taylor was charged with two felonies, first-degree criminal sex act and third-degree sexual abuse, the police said.

Last month officials at the city-run hospital agreed to allow a federal judge to monitor conditions at the psychiatric unit. The agreement followed a lawsuit filed by patients of the Brooklyn hospital and the 2008 death of a schizophrenic 49-year-old woman who had been taken to the psychiatric emergency room. The woman, Esmin Green, was left for 24 hrs in a waiting room and was ignored even after she collapsed onto the floor. She died as a result of blood clots. The city later paid her family $2 million.

Earlier in 2008, a scathing Justice Department report documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients in the psychiatric unit.

“We are aware of the serious allegations against the employee and are fully cooperating with police in their investigation,” said Ana Marengo, a spokeswoman for the city’s HHC. “We will not be able to comment about the alleged incident.”

Investigators said that the 28-year-old patient told family members and hospital social workers that he had been sexually assaulted. The investigators reviewed the records of employees who worked that day to find potential suspects. The police said that although the victim was deaf, mute and mentally disabled, he was able to provide investigators with helpful information. “All I’ll say is that he was helpful in the identification,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The suspect, Mr. Taylor, does not have a criminal record.

The lawsuit that led to the monitoring agreement, filed by the Mental Hygiene Legal Service, the NY Civil Liberties Union and mentally ill patients who were treated at the hospital, alleged that the psychiatric unit was “a chamber of filth, decay, indifference and danger.”

On Jan. 8, the city, the Justice Department and the plaintiffs from the lawsuit reached an agreement on a consent decree that allowed a federal judge to monitor the unit.

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