Hospital worker gets 4 years in attacks; victim calls him a ‘creep’
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A patient-care assistant at a south Orange County hospital was sentenced Friday in the sexual assault of two women in his care and the battery of another, prosecutors said.
Narcisco Romanes Blando, 48, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual battery on an institutionalized person and two misdemeanor counts of battery, according to a statement from the Orange County district attorney’s office.
He was sentenced to four years in state prison and will have to register as a sex offender for life, the statement said.
Prosecutors said that at the time of the crimes, Blando worked at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills.
One of the women, in a statement read to the court Friday, said Blando damaged her self-esteem and dignity.
‘I had self-esteem and knew I was a good person,’ said the 65-year-old patient, a retired special education teacher.
‘The creep took advantage of me and my condition, took all of my dignity and self-assurance and threw it away. I feel dirty and can’t seem to get his rage and the look in his eyes out of my head.’
Prosecutors said they documented three instances in which Blando, a resident of Orange, caressed, kissed, molested and assaulted patients at the medical facility.
On Aug. 11, 2011, prosecutors said, Blando stroked the hair of a 60-year-old patient recovering from surgery and kissed her lips and cheek against her will.
Another woman, a 54-year-old patient, was molested by Blando on Feb. 6, 2012, under the pretense that he was applying lotion, prosecutors said. There was no medical reason for him to touch the patient where he did, they said, noting that he stopped when the woman began to cry. The woman cried herself to sleep, then awoke to Blando stroking her hair, prosecutors said. He kissed her forehead and asked her for a kiss, they said.
Prosecutors said that after authorities began investigating the case, a third woman came forward -- a 65-year-old who said that on Jan. 2, 2012, Blando entered her hospital room, removed her call button to prevent her from seeking help, and began to molest her under her hospital gown.
He left the room after the woman yelled at him to stop, prosecutors said.
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-- Rick Rojas