Nurse accused in patient’s rape contests evidence

Man’s attorney says police did not have a warrant for DNA

PHOENIX — A nurse charged with sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman who later gave birth at a longterm care facility in Phoenix is asking a judge to throw out DNA evidence.

An attorney for Nathan Sutherland said in a court filing this week that the evidence should be tossed because Phoenix police officers didn’t get a warrant or have probable cause to take his client’s DNA and instead relied on a court order with a lesser standard of proof to gather the evidence.

Sutherland’s lawyer, Edwin Molina, said investigators made a misrepresentation when saying in a request for the court order that 36 male Hacienda Healthcare employees whose DNA was being sought had direct access to the victim. Molina argued police were unaware of the job duties of the 36 men or whether they had contact with the victim and said that investigators worked under the theory that “anybody and everybody could be a suspect.”

The Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting Sutherland, declined to comment on Sutherland’s request.

The pregnancy was discovered in December 2018 when an employee at the facility was changing the garments of the then-29-year-old victim and noticed she was delivering a child. Employees told police they had no idea the woman, who had lived at Hacienda for 26 years until the child’s birth, was pregnant. Her medical conditions stem from a brain disorder that caused motor and cognitive impairments, and vision loss. She also has no functional use of her limbs.

Sutherland, a licensed practical nurse, has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and abuse of a vulnerable adult charges. He was fired by Hacienda after his arrest and has given up his nursing license.

Police have said Sutherland’s DNA matched a sample taken from the woman’s son. The victim’s mother is the boy’s guardian.