Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Joe Bilgen said the sexual abuse his father endured at the hands of Ohio nursing home night shift nurse John Riems was akin to child abuse because Riems victims had similar states of mind. The fiancé of another victim told the Associated Press that Riems was an, “ancient evil spirit of torment.”

Last week, Riems entered an Alford plea to four counts of sexual battery and one count of gross sexual imposition. According to AP, an Alford plea is one in which the defendant does not plead guilty but does admit there is enough evidence against him for a conviction. Riems was sentenced Friday to 12 ½ years in prison.

According to earlier reports from Fox News/AP, Riems was accused of raping and assaulting a paralyzed patient. Coworkers reportedly complained nursing home management that he had a temper and had verbally abused patients. One former coworker of Riems said she saw him go into patients’ rooms for long periods of time. When questioned what he was doing in the rooms for so long, he would say “This is none of your business,” according to Fox News/AP.

Riems was videotaped last year admitting that he had abused about 100 patients at nursing homes since the 1980s. His attorney argued that the testimony was coerced and fought to keep the videotape out of trial. The judge ordered that the tape would be allowed in court, which led to Riems’ plea agreement just days before he was to stand trial.

The sentencing offers some closure for the heartbroken family members of the victims. ”I don’t think that anyone knows the hurt and the anger that I am holding for you,” AP reported Bilgen saying to Riems during the sentencing hearing. “It’s something that I will never forgive you for.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under News, Nursing Home Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.