Hospital worker accussed of rape captured by security www.privateofficer.com
Columbus GA. Jan 5, 2008
A 40-year-old Columbus woman said her life has not been the same since she was awakened to find a 315-pound employee of The Medical Center forcing himself on her while she slept in her daughter's hospital room last month.
The Dec. 21 attack led to the arrest of Cleveland Shack, 48, of 3400 Eighth Ave., Columbus. Shack, an employee of The Medical Center since October 2000, was arrested the same day and fired Dec. 22, according to Columbus Regional Healthcare System Senior Vice President Tom Titus. Shack worked in environmental services as a floor care specialist, he said.
"We do a criminal background check on all employees. We don't hire employees with prior felony offenses that indicate they would be a threat to patients or the public," Titus said Thursday. "We take the safety of our patients and visitors seriously. We do have mechanisms in place to protect the public and patients."
Shack was charged with aggravated sodomy, said Columbus Police Sgt. Debra Bohannon of the Sex Crimes Unit. He was ordered held without bond in Muscogee County Jail, and the case was bound over to Muscogee Superior Court.
During a Dec. 22 Recorder's Court hearing, the woman begged the judge not to set a bond, out of fear the man might come after her or her children. The case is expected to go to a Muscogee County grand jury.
The victim, who talked with a reporter Thursday, said she thought she was having a nightmare when she awoke during the 4 a.m. attack, feeling as if she was choking.
"Then I realized it was not a dream. Someone was standing over me. I was gasping for my breath. There was no way for me to scream. He grabbed me by the head, shoulder area and around my neck area as I was struggling with him. He said, 'Come on, make me feel good.' "
Apparently hearing noise in the fifth-floor patient room, a respiratory therapist came to check on the woman's daughter and saw the man standing over the woman and ran for additional help, said the mother, who explained that she was sitting halfway up in a hospital chair at the time of the attack.
"I remembered I had a Mace container on my keychain," she said. "I grabbed the Mace and started Macing him. Respiratory therapy and nurse staff gathered in the room. I said things like 'You sick pervert.' He said I was crazy for spraying him with Mace. He said, 'Get that crazy lady off me.' Nurses were trying to hold me back from attacking him."
The woman said her attacker got loose and began running down the hallway. She chased him down the hall, continuing to spray Mace at him. The victim then found a wooden Christmas ornament and tried to hit him with it. She said he darted through a security door that she didn't have access to. But shortly, a hospital security officer arrived and caught up with him.
Bohannon said police were called and took Shack to the police department, where he was charged after they obtained enough evidence.
"This is something the public needs to know is going on and be aware of what kind of person he is," she said. "He was treating me like an animal, but he was the animal. I am kind of afraid. You feel you have to watch over your shoulder."
She said she still can't believe it happened at the hospital.
"It seems unbelievable, something you might hear in a movie or on TV," she said.
The victim said she had seen Shack at the hospital during trips her daughter made, but she didn't know him. She said he came into her daughter's room about midnight Dec. 21, five hours after her daughter was admitted and asked how she was doing.
This is the second sexual assault to occur in a Columbus hospital. A man pleaded guilty in Superior Court on Nov. 26, 2007, to committing sexual assaults on a patient at St. Francis Hospital.
The Dec. 21 attack led to the arrest of Cleveland Shack, 48, of 3400 Eighth Ave., Columbus. Shack, an employee of The Medical Center since October 2000, was arrested the same day and fired Dec. 22, according to Columbus Regional Healthcare System Senior Vice President Tom Titus. Shack worked in environmental services as a floor care specialist, he said.
"We do a criminal background check on all employees. We don't hire employees with prior felony offenses that indicate they would be a threat to patients or the public," Titus said Thursday. "We take the safety of our patients and visitors seriously. We do have mechanisms in place to protect the public and patients."
Shack was charged with aggravated sodomy, said Columbus Police Sgt. Debra Bohannon of the Sex Crimes Unit. He was ordered held without bond in Muscogee County Jail, and the case was bound over to Muscogee Superior Court.
During a Dec. 22 Recorder's Court hearing, the woman begged the judge not to set a bond, out of fear the man might come after her or her children. The case is expected to go to a Muscogee County grand jury.
The victim, who talked with a reporter Thursday, said she thought she was having a nightmare when she awoke during the 4 a.m. attack, feeling as if she was choking.
"Then I realized it was not a dream. Someone was standing over me. I was gasping for my breath. There was no way for me to scream. He grabbed me by the head, shoulder area and around my neck area as I was struggling with him. He said, 'Come on, make me feel good.' "
Apparently hearing noise in the fifth-floor patient room, a respiratory therapist came to check on the woman's daughter and saw the man standing over the woman and ran for additional help, said the mother, who explained that she was sitting halfway up in a hospital chair at the time of the attack.
"I remembered I had a Mace container on my keychain," she said. "I grabbed the Mace and started Macing him. Respiratory therapy and nurse staff gathered in the room. I said things like 'You sick pervert.' He said I was crazy for spraying him with Mace. He said, 'Get that crazy lady off me.' Nurses were trying to hold me back from attacking him."
The woman said her attacker got loose and began running down the hallway. She chased him down the hall, continuing to spray Mace at him. The victim then found a wooden Christmas ornament and tried to hit him with it. She said he darted through a security door that she didn't have access to. But shortly, a hospital security officer arrived and caught up with him.
Bohannon said police were called and took Shack to the police department, where he was charged after they obtained enough evidence.
"This is something the public needs to know is going on and be aware of what kind of person he is," she said. "He was treating me like an animal, but he was the animal. I am kind of afraid. You feel you have to watch over your shoulder."
She said she still can't believe it happened at the hospital.
"It seems unbelievable, something you might hear in a movie or on TV," she said.
The victim said she had seen Shack at the hospital during trips her daughter made, but she didn't know him. She said he came into her daughter's room about midnight Dec. 21, five hours after her daughter was admitted and asked how she was doing.
This is the second sexual assault to occur in a Columbus hospital. A man pleaded guilty in Superior Court on Nov. 26, 2007, to committing sexual assaults on a patient at St. Francis Hospital.
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