Nursing Assistant Accused Of Raping Paralyzed Patient
Police issued an arrest warrant for 39-year-old Lamin Darboe, but finding him and getting him back to Seattle won't be easy.
Darboe was working his shift at Seattle's Kindred Hospital, giving the 31-year-old stroke victim a sponge bath.
Seattle police say afterward, a friend visiting the woman sensed something was wrong.
According to police documents, that friend, "asked (the patient) if the caregiver had touched her in a way that made her uncomfortable. (The patient) indicated yes in a vigorous way and started to cry.
"(The friend) asked the patient if the man had touched her 'down there'. (The patient) indicated yes," the documents continued.
Police emphasized to KOMO 4 News several times that the victim was a woman with no physical ability to defend herself.
"She cannot speak, had to communicate through an alphabet board," said Officer Jeff Kappel with the Seattle Police Department. "(She's) somebody who couldn't raise her own arms, raise her own legs."
Police looking into Darboe's past say the nursing assistant was fired from Swedish Hospital in 2002 after he allegedly made sexual comments to a female patient during a sponge bath and touched her inappropriately.
No charges were filed in that case.
But Darboe has been charged with second-degree rape and indecent liberties by the King County Prosecutor.
But that before police arrested him, Darboe left the U.S. on a flight headed to the west African nation of Gambia and remains at large.
Police say Darboe sent a letter to his employer saying he had a family emergency in Gambia and would be gone for four weeks.