Ann Klein patient was charged in doctor beatdown prior to gang rape
TRENTON >> Jaquin Works, who has been identified by security guards as one of the potential participants in a gang rape at the Ann Klein Forensic Center that happened the day after Thanksgiving, was previously charged with viciously attacking a doctor at the psychiatric facility about a month before the sexual assault.
Works, 29, of Newark, is one of as many as six people who is being explored as potentially involved in the Nov. 23 gang rape, though some guards have suggested he may not have been involved.
Tim Ward, the head of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office’s special victims unit, wouldn’t reveal whether investigators believe Works had any role in the gang rape.
He also declined to identify any of the suspects or say whether anybody who has been interviewed by the authorities is considered a suspect at this point.
“We’ve made some pretty substantial headway,” Ward said. “I hope we will have our investigation completed in the next couple weeks.”
No charges have been filed against anyone in connection with the gang rape.
But Works, who was committed to the psychiatric center from Essex County in August 2015, faces an unrelated charge of aggravated assault in a violent attack of a doctor at the psychiatric center.
The attack occurred Oct. 25, according to a criminal complaint signed five days later by New Jersey State Police Trooper David Ortiz.
The Trentonian previously documented the doctor attack in stories detailing the escalating violence at the psychiatric center, but hadn’t learned until this week that authorities filed charges against Works connecting him to that brutal beatdown.
During the “unprovoked” attack in the area of Unit 2B, Works punched the doctor in the side of his head, according to the criminal complaint, adding the attack was captured on the psychiatric center’s surveillance cameras.
The doctor – whose name was redacted from the court documents – was knocked unconscious, security guards previously told The Trentonian.
The doctor suffered facial fractures, a brain bleed and a concussion and was hospitalized, according to the criminal complaint.
Works, who has struggled with competency during his crime-filled past, admitted to the attack when he spoke with police, the criminal complaint stated.
Ortiz wrote in the complaint the attack demonstrated Works’ “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
Works, also known as Darin Works, had a history of committing crimes in Essex County before he was committed to Ann Klein.
He pleaded guilty in 2013 to fourth-degree stalking for something that happened in Newark on May 16, 2012 and received probation in that case.
In another case, he was arrested Jan. 7, 2014, and indicted in a still-open first-degree robbery case in Newark.
Court records list Works being “inactive lacks fitness,” suggesting he is incompetent to stand trial, true for many patients at Ann Klein.
As far as the gang rape, what initially started as a consensual encounter between the victim and one male patient devolved into a bathroom stall gang rape, according to security guards who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide significant details of the investigation.
Some guards have said Works was involved in some manner in the gang rape while other guards suggested he may have been in another wing of the building – still isolated because of the doctor assault – when the rape happened in the rehabilitation unit on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
The MCPO refused to rule Works in or out of the gang rape.
Guards told The Trentonian authorities are also exploring the potential involvement of patients Javier Arroyo, 33, Marquese Battle, 28, and Michael Freeman, 36, who was pegged as the alleged lookout.
The Trentonian also learned from security guards this week that Salaam Leeks, 32, was the male patient who was allegedly involved in the initial consensual sexual encounter with the victim.
The victim was performing sexual favors for Leeks in the unity room of the psychiatric facility when a staffer noticed them but didn’t alert security guards to what was going on, guards said.
Instead, the two left that part of the building and picked back up their sexual encounter in a bathroom stall in the rehabilitation wing after a security guard left his post to help guards with another task. Leeks is hard to miss because he is required to wear a protective helmet reminiscent of an old-fashioned leather football helmet because of his medical issues, guards said. As the two were inside the stall engaged in the sexual encounter, several male patients walked in and proceeded to rape, sodomize and force the woman to perform oral sex while Freeman, the alleged lookout, kept watch near the bathroom doors, the guards said. The woman didn’t scream out for help because she was afraid of what might happen to her, according to guards who were familiar with what she told investigators. The MCPO confirmed last week the guards’ accounts provided to The Trentonian were “consistent” with what investigators learned about the gang rape. Ward said Tuesday investigators haven’t uncovered any evidence suggesting guards were in on a conspiracy with the alleged participants to allow the rape to happen. To date, prosecutors haven’t asked a judge for any court orders to collect DNA samples from any suspects to compare them against the victim’s rape kit. That evidence is still being processed. “We’re moving through the steps of the investigation,” Ward said. Staff writer Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman contributed to this report