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| DHS DIRECTOR CINDY GILLESPIE |
We reported earlier about the shenanigans involving a Department of Human Services/Arkansas State Hospital psychological examiner (since fired) and a patient/inmate that made an unauthorized road trip to Las Vegas. You can read that post by clicking here and here.
Today we are reporting on the conviction this week of another DHS/ASH employee (fired now as well) who's sexual assaulting of patients was ignored by DHS/ASH administration.
James Leon Davis, 44, was a State Hospital worker when authorities say he was caught
having sex with a brain-damaged patient will have to register as a sex offender
after pleading no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor sex charge, reduced from
felony sexual assault.
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| JAMES LEON DAVIS - MUGSHOT FROM HIS ARREST IN MAY 2017 |
Davis had been charged with third-degree
sexual assault, which criminalizes sexual contact between people in state
custody and their guards, caretakers, probation/parole supervisors and others
in custodian-type roles. The charge is a Class C felony that carries up to 10
years in prison.
Under the terms of the whittled down plea agreement negotiated by defense
attorney Lott Rolfe, and accepted by Pulaski County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jacob DeYoung, Davis will only spend a year on probation and pay a $500 fine
for misdemeanor public sexual indecency, which makes it a crime to have sex in
public places or in public view.
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| ROLFE & DEYOUNG MADE A GOOD DEAL FOR DAVIS, BUT A BAD ONE FOR THE VICTIMS |
The plea came after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims
earlier this month cleared the way for a former State Hospital patient, a
35-year-old North Little Rock woman with schizophrenia, to testify about how
Davis coerced her into repeated sexual acts with him. Davis was never charged
over her accusations.
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| THE PLEA WAS APPROVED BY PULASKI COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BARRY SIMS (ON RIGHT) |
Davis is reported to have forced her to strip naked,
get down on her hands and knees and act like a dog for his sexual
gratification, according to her testimony at an earlier hearing.
Davis was never charged over that former patient's
allegations, but Pulaski County Circuit Judge Barry Sims previously ruled that the
35-year-old North Little Rock woman with schizophrenia could testify against Davis man at the trial over allegations he sexually assaulted
another patient.
Davis was caught in
the act with a 27-year-old patient by a nurse on March 6, 2017, deputy
prosecutor Jacob DeYoung told the judge. He said the older woman's testimony
was necessary to show how Davis targeted mentally ill women.
"He has picked
these vulnerable women who cannot resist," DeYoung told the judge.
Defense attorney Lott Rolfe opposed allowing her to testify,
arguing that her accusations were not credible and noting that she never went
to authorities during the six-month period in 2015 that she claims Davis was
molesting her.
Investigators did not interview her until September, Rolfe
said. She has also made "numerous" false accusations against other
hospital workers, he told the judge.
Sims said he'd allow the woman to testify and leave the
decision about her credibility and reliability up to jurors at Davis' March 28th
trial.
She testified that Davis would "demand" that she
"do certain things or I would go back to jail." She said the dog
incident occurred in a hospital restroom. Davis would promise her extra snacks
if she submitted to his requests, the woman said, telling the judge how her
medication had caused her to crave carbohydrates.
Davis also promised her extra phone time, which she said was
important to her because the phone was the only way she could listen to her
choice of music while in the hospital.
Davis regularly required her to submit to his demands that
she sexually gratify him, sometimes by having her touch his privates, sometimes
by rubbing himself on her and sometimes through kissing, the woman said.
When she didn't do what Davis told her, her medication would
be significantly increased and she'd be subjected to more intensive monitoring
by the hospital staff, the woman said. Davis was not concerned when she
threatened to tell authorities, she told the judge. The woman said she made
"almost 100" reports to hospital authorities about what was going on,
but no one did anything.
"He said he didn't care and it was just going to come
back on me," she said. "I probably made almost 100 statements around
the time ... but I think they covered it up."
Questioned about "love letters" she wrote to
Davis, the woman said she wrote them because Davis demanded them, telling the
judge that the letters were "basically a paraphrase" of author Danielle
Steel's novel A Perfect Stranger. She testified she was reading a lot of
Steel's books at the time.
"I just told him what he wanted to hear," she
said.
The 27-year-old woman whom Davis is accused of assaulting
did not testify at Monday's hearing. Court records show she suffered brain damage when she
was hit by a car at age 11.
The impact fractured her skull and put her into a coma for
three months. She also had a stroke while she was hospitalized. Her injuries
inflicted intellectual disabilities plus damaged her impulse control.
These events are a clear indication that Gillespie has lost control of her department and needs to straighten things out quickly or be replaced.
