Jeffrey McAllister : Ex-nurse admits abuse of patients

An Oregon nurse pleaded guilty on Tuesday to sexually abusing women in a Portland hospital’s emergency room and is expected to be sentenced to 15 years in prison under terms of a deal with prosecutors, a court administrator said.

Prosecutors alleged that Jeffrey McAllister chose his victims carefully, selecting women he thought wouldn’t complain or wouldn’t be believed if they did, The Oregonian reported.

Then, pretending to do medical tasks, the 39-year-old former police officer abused them, the prosecutors said.

Some women complained, but the complaints went nowhere or hospital workers didn’t believe them. One of the 10 victims was an emergency room worker.

Federal investigators found that Legacy Emanuel Medical Center didn’t have systems to ensure patient safety, and the staff flouted regulations by failing to document complaints, dismissing allegations without interviewing patients, keeping McAllister on the job during inquiries and, in one case, putting a patient at risk by emailing her detailed allegations to him.

The government threatened to withhold $250 million in Medicare funding, and the hospital hurriedly put together a prevention plan to salvage the money. A lawsuit against the hospital is to begin in April.

McAllister pleaded guilty to sex abuse, unlawful sexual penetration and other charges. Under the deal, prosecutors will dismiss charges such as rape and sodomy that would have brought minimum mandatory sentences of 25 years in custody.

At a trial that was to begin in days, prosecutors were preparing to characterize McAllister as a “serial sexual predator,” according to court documents that described assaults from 2009 to April 2013.

“He knew who would be believed between himself and a compromised patient, and what methods to employ to talk himself out of trouble,” prosecutors wrote. “This, in turn, kept him employed as a nurse with continued access to patients as the complaints rolled in.”

McAllister’s lawyer signaled his intent to try to attack the women’s veracity by bringing up past criminal conduct.

Agencies/Canadajournal