Nurse accused of raping patient offers defense

Guylin Michael Johnston, accused of raping a mental patient at Eastern State Hospital, offered a defense Wednesday that a deputy prosecutor said was about as plausible as blaming space aliens.

Johnston and a co-worker offered a loose conspiracy theory involving two co-workers to account for his semen having been found mixed with the alleged victim’s saliva in a wad of gum in a tissue found in her pants pocket.

Johnston is charged with second-degree rape and indecent liberties for allegedly forcing a 30-year-old woman to have oral sex with him last June in a hospital laundry room. A licensed practical nurse, he had been assigned to watch the woman one-on-one so she wouldn’t attempt suicide.

Because of the woman’s mental illness and Johnston’s supervisory authority over her, any sexual contact between them would have been illegal.

Johnston testified Wednesday that he had no sexual contact with the patient. He said that sex with a co-worker could explain how his DNA got mixed with the alleged victim’s in the gum police found in a semen-soaked tissue in her pocket.

One of Johnston’s co-workers, Jackie Hughes, testified that another Eastern State Hospital employee, mental health technician Mike Evans, recruited her to have sex with Johnston and collect a semen sample. She said she recovered the sample from a condom and passed it to Evans in a plastic sandwich bag.

“She’s totally lying. What can I say?” Evans said in an interview.

Defense attorney Rob Cossey said he didn’t subpoena Evans to testify because Evans had already indicated “he wasn’t going to admit that.”

Johnston testified he had no previous social or sexual relationship with Hughes but accepted her invitation to have sex in her car several weeks before the alleged rape. He said he was leaving a tavern while she was entering, and she asked him to have a beer in her car.

Testimony suggested romantic rivalry may have been Evans’ motive for framing Johnston. Evans was said to be dating a former girlfriend of Johnston’s.

There was no explanation, however, for why the woman accusing Johnston of rape would have participated in such a scheme.

Cossey told the jury that there was enough reasonable doubt to acquit Johnston. He cited several inconsistencies in the accounts the alleged victim gave on the witness stand and to police and hospital officials shortly after she said Johnston raped and groped her.

The defense attorney also complained that potential evidence, a plastic sandwich bag folded into a paper towel, was discarded after being found in the laundry room several weeks after the alleged rape. Three members of the hospital custodial staff testified that the baggie contained what looked like partially dried semen.

Deputy Prosecutor John Love said that Johnston’s explanation made as much sense as blaming space aliens for the weather.

“The state cannot disprove that aliens dowsed the neighborhood with a big shower head to make it look like it rained,” Love told jurors in his final arguments. The case has gone to jury.