Ohio Registered Nurse Hit With New Sexual Abuse Charges
John Riems, a registered nurse with twenty-two years of experience, charged with rape, sexual battery, and patient abuse in January 2008 pled not guilty. He now faces new abuse charges to which he has admitted to investigators that he abused almost 100 patients over the span of his career.
In January 2008, Riems was charged with 12 counts of rape and two counts of sexual penetration over abuse that occurred at Concord Care and Rehabilitation Center in Ohio. Riems' victims were a 55 year old blind and partially paralyzed male resident and a resident in his eighties.
Riems behavior does not come as a surprise to some of his co-workers. He was known to have a temper and was seen throwing papers and hitting walls and medical carts. Patients didn't want him touching them and didn't want him in their rooms. Some of them would refuse their medications just to keep him out of their room.
Patients weren't the only ones to note innappropriate behavior. His fellow employees reported his verbal abuse of patients as well as seeing signs of abuse and neglect, such as bruises and bedsores, to their superiors at Concord Care. Reportedly, however, those reports were ignored. In fact, one former employee noted that "management at Concord Care worked extensively to cover up reports of resident abuse, even calling residents "bottom of the barrel".
Trial is set to begin on September 29.
