Surgical Nurse Convicted Of Raping 2 Incapacitated Patients

A former surgical nurse in California was convicted by a Sacramento jury Tuesday of sexually assaulting two female patients as they recovered from surgery.

Gregory Harms faces a maximum sentence of 29 years to life in prison for the sexual assaults that happened in April 2011 and January 2019, according to a news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

Harms is set to be sentenced on April 29 before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ernest Sawtelle.

Harms was working at a Carmichael surgery center in April 2011 when he sexually assaulted a woman in his care.

The woman, whose name was not disclosed, was incapacitated and recovering from her surgery when the sexual assault happened, county prosecutors said. The victim immediately reported the incident.

Harms sexually assaulted the second victim in January 2019 while working as a nurse at a hospital in Folsom, California. At the time, the unnamed woman was unable to move her arms and legs or speak, and her only form of communication was a thumbs up or down and limited writing capabilities

Harms, who was the second victim's assigned nurse, tied her only working hand to the hospital bed before sexually assaulting her, prosecutors said.

The woman was found tied to the bed by a respiratory therapist, who observed her in distress. The second victim reported the assault after being freed.

During a trial, the jury found the allegations of Harms tying the victim to the bed during the sexual assault to be true, the district attorney's office said.

Harms was arrested by Folsom police on Nov. 8, 2019, according to Fox 40, following a lengthy investigation that also uncovered the 2011 incident.

Aside from the two women, Harms may have other victims.

In January 2021, a woman filed a lawsuit against Methodist Hospital of Sacramento claiming that she was sexually assaulted by Harms on multiple occasions in 2016.

The unidentified woman, who had been treated for a pulmonary embolism at the hospital, claimed in her lawsuit that she was told by staff that she was "hallucinating" being sexually assaulted by Harms.

She reported the assault in January 2017 after regaining her speech. However, investigators closed the case after hospital staff told police the woman imagined the assault due to her poor condition and being heavily medicated.