Detectives at the Phoenix Police Department took the nurse, Nathan Sutherland, 36, in for questioning in the case on Tuesday, police said, and collected a DNA sample from him that matched that of the child, a boy who was born on Dec. 29. Sutherland was booked on Wednesday morning at the Maricopa County Jail on one charge of sexual assault and one charge of vulnerable adult abuse, police said.
“Through a combination of good old-fashioned police work, combing through evidence, talking to people and following up on information, combined with the marvels of DNA technology, we were able to identify and develop probable cause to arrest a suspect,” Jeri L. Williams, the Police Department’s chief, said at a news conference Wednesday.
Detectives started to focus on Sutherland because he was among the medical staff members at the nursing home, Hacienda HealthCare, who were assigned to care for the woman around the time last year that police believe she was assaulted. The woman had been at the nursing home since 1992 and since then, had been in the same condition, unable to communicate or move, according to medical records. A lawyer for the family on Wednesday said they were aware of the arrest but had no comment.
Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse, had worked at Hacienda since 2011 and was still working there as of Tuesday, police said. He was fired soon after his arrest, the company said Wednesday.
For nearly a month, the details of the case had gripped the Phoenix region and embroiled Hacienda HealthCare, a major health provider for people with serious disabilities in the state. The fallout has been immense at Hacienda, forcing the company’s longtime chief executive to resign, and made it the focus of multiple investigations.
“Every member of the Hacienda organization is troubled beyond words to think that a licensed practical nurse could be capable of seriously harming a patient,” company officials said in a statement. “Once again, we offer an apology and send our deepest sympathies to the client and her family, to the community and to our agency partners at every level.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.