PLANTATION, Fla. – A patient care technician working at a South Florida hospital is accused of sexually battering two patients in their 70s, according to court documents obtained by Local 10 News on Tuesday. Authorities arrested 45-year-old Emerson Jean over the weekend, according to Broward jail records. According to two arrest warrants, Jean, of Lauderdale Lakes, worked at HCA Florida Westside Hospital, located at 8201 W. Broward Blvd. in Plantation.
He’s accused of sexually battering a 74-year-old woman in January and a 70-year-old woman last Tuesday. Both were hospitalized at the time, according to Plantation police.
In the first case, police said Jean touched the 74-year-old’s genitals and breasts under the guise of “cleaning” her. According to police, Jean had no legitimate reason to touch the woman there. The victim “explained that Emerson was trying to relax her by ‘masturbating’ her,” a Plantation detective wrote in an arrest warrant.
He stopped, police said, after the woman said she was in pain. Police said Jean would kiss her on the forehead and told the woman she was “beautiful.”
Regarding the sexual battery, the woman told detectives that Jean “told her not to say anything because he could get fired” and that “next time will be better,” according to the warrant.
The woman told police that two or three days before she was battered, she heard another patient “screaming” from another room and said that the other woman tried calling the police “because she felt she was being sexually harassed,” the warrant states.
According to police, that woman was later signed out from the hospital and never called authorities. Afterward, police said the 74-year-old told detectives that Jean remarked that he did not have to “deal with the other patient anymore” and said “he was the person who was sexually harassing her.”
Police interviewed the second patient last Wednesday, one day after she said she was assaulted, the warrant states. The 70-year-old woman told police that she had been laying on her side in her hospital bed due to pain in her “belt line” when Jean entered her room and whispered in her ear asking if she was “in pain and awake,” the second warrant states. After telling him she was, the warrant states that Jean, who’s not authorized to perform medical examinations, insisted on “checking her ‘groin area,’” at which point he pulled down her pajama shorts and touched her genitals.
Police said Jean “pinned” the woman’s left wrist and she began crying, but couldn’t yell out for help or hit the call button. The woman told police that she felt like Jean was “having sex with me with his fingers,” the warrant states. “I’m an old lady. Why would he do this to me?” police said she told detectives through tears. In shock, afraid and “in intense pain due to (the) sexual battery,” police said the woman reported what happened to a doctor who came into her room to ask how she was doing; he immediately left the room to report what happened.
Police said a male nurse and a female nurse came into the room afterward and as she was telling them what happened, Jean came in too.
The female nurse “jumped up,” went over to Jean and said, sternly, that he was not to come near “this patient” ever again, the warrant states. As the nurse escorted Jean out of the room, the victim said she heard Jean say, “She wanted me to exam(ine) her,” according to police. He would later be placed on administrative leave. Authorities arrested Jean Saturday on two counts each of sexual battery on a helpless person and battery on a person over 65. He’s also facing an additional charge of false imprisonment. As of Tuesday, he was being held without bond in the Broward Main Jail; records show he also has an immigration hold.
In a statement Wednesday, a hospital spokesperson said, “At HCA Florida Westside Hospital, we do not tolerate behavior that jeopardizes the well-being and safety of our patients. Once we learned of the allegations, we suspended the individual from all duties and restricted their access to the hospital premises. We are assisting law enforcement with their investigation.”
Plantation police said Wednesday that anyone with “information regarding similar experiences” at the hospital is asked to call Detective William Tighe II at 954-797-2120.
They said information can be left anonymously through Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
“HCA Florida Westside Hospital continues to work alongside the Plantation Police Department with this investigation,” police said in a news release.
