Rape suspect was on mental hospital’s radar
State records detail a history of complaints against a nurse for alleged sexual contact with mentally ill patients dating back nine years, but provide few insights into why state officials did not discipline or fire the nurse.
The state Department of Health released 80 pages of complaints and reports Tuesday on Guy M. Johnston, a 42-year-old nurse arrested last month for allegedly raping a patient at Eastern State Hospital. But the department withheld hundreds of other documents from Johnston’s personnel file, citing privacy laws.
“Those documents are not publicly disclosable,” said Shannon Walker, a spokeswoman for the department.
The records that were released make clear that state and hospital officials were concerned about Johnston’s behavior as far back as 1995, when the nurse allegedly had “inappropriate contact with a patient.”
In 1997, when Johnston was under investigation for having oral sex at the hospital, Eastern’s assistant director of nursing “expressed concern that this nurse still had a valid license,” according to DOH records. That same year, Johnston’s supervisor wrote that the nurse “finds it difficult to accept redirection from his supervisor and has difficultly accepting responsibility for his actions.”
As recently as last summer, a complaint that appears to have been filed by a state employee reported “grave concerns regarding Mr. Johnston’s ability to provide safe and effective care to patients … ” It is unclear who made the statement because the state blacked out names, job titles and dates in accordance with state law.
Hospital officials ordered counseling for Johnston and placed him on home duty in 1997, but at the time of his arrest last month he had no restrictions on his license to practice nursing. In addition to hospital supervisors, officials with the Department of Social and Health Services, as well as those at the Department of Health, had the authority to discipline Johnston.
On June 10, the hospital assigned him to one-on-one suicide watch with a 29-year-old female patient. The patient alleged Johnston locked her in a laundry room, placed his penis in her mouth, and then put his hands in her shirt and down her pants.
Johnston, a licensed practical nurse at the Medical Lake hospital, began working at Eastern in 1992.
He has prior arrests for reckless endangerment, two assaults, malicious mischief and violating a court order – yet he passed a hospital background check in 2000.
The DOH records include few documents on his alleged sexual abuses. Many of the 90 pages that were released, following a public records’ request from The Spokesman-Review, regard Johnston’s alleged failure to document a patient’s ear infection.
The department withheld 382 pages of documents from Johnston’s file, citing personnel privacy laws. Yet the released documents show troubling signs:
• In July 1996, Johnston was arrested in the hospital parking lot for violating a protective order. His girlfriend sought the protective order after he allegedly choked her and beat her with an ax handle, according to court records. He later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault.
• On Feb. 18, 1997, Johnston was placed on home duty due to “alleged patient abuse,” according to a witness statement from a hospital nurse. While DOH records are unclear on the nature of the complaint, documents filed in Spokane County District Court indicate Johnston was accused of having oral sex at the hospital that year. He was not charged in the incident.
• In March 1997, a patient “verbalized a complaint about Johnston’s behavior in her room,” according to the documents. They do not provide details of the complaint, the investigation or the results of a Personal Conduct Review hearing.
Although the records only hint at the complaint, the charges appeared to be serious.
In an unsigned, undated memo released by DOH, a state employee reported the state’s Nursing Commission was “quite concerned” about the allegations.
That fall, the Washington State Patrol issued a report on the allegations of abuse. The report was forwarded to the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office, which decided not to prosecute Johnston, according to the documents. The Department of Health withheld the WSP report from The Spokesman-Review, classifying it as “non-conviction data.”
In 2003, the department received a complaint alleging Johnston had a “high potential for violence” and that he violated state law by failing to report his arrest record.
The state’s Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission, part of DOH, closed the complaint without investigating, stating that the allegations did not violate state law.
“There is a certain threshold,” said Terry West, a commission staffer. “I don’t know the exact nature of the closure, but sometimes things don’t rise to the level of action.”
The commission, which has the authority to suspend or revoke Johnston’s license, said it is reviewing the current charges.