Opening statements made in trial of nursing assistant charged with sexual assault

Steven Farmer was described by his lawyer Friday as a certified nursing assistant who “went above and beyond.”

“It’s a dirty job involving intimate care,” Deputy Public Defender Ryan Bashor told jurors.

But authorities allege the man with the white beard, who liked playing Santa Claus, used his profession to engage in inappropriate behavior with six female patients.

Lawyers presented their opening statements to a jury Friday in a criminal case involving five patients at Centennial Hills Hospital Medical Center. Farmer, 61, is accused of sexually assaulting two of those patients.

“In 2008, five women were taken to Centennial Hills Hospital for treatment, for care and for help,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth said.

Those women could not have known they would be victimized during their stay, the prosecutor told jurors.

One woman was taken to Centennial Hills after a suicide attempt on April 26, 2008. Bluth said Farmer introduced himself by name and chatted with the patient and her two aunts about his beard and how he “liked playing Santa Claus.”

With all three women in the room, the prosecutor said, Farmer began to rub his groin area in a circular motion against the patient’s feet. After he left the room, the patient told her aunts that Farmer made her uncomfortable, and she asked them to stay with her.

The other four Centennial Hills patients encountered Farmer in mid-May 2008. The Las Vegas Review-Journal typically does not identify victims of sex crimes.

One woman went to the hospital on May 12, 2008, after suffering a seizure in a grocery store parking lot.

Bluth said the woman could not move or talk while recovering from her seizure but remembered Farmer introducing himself. The patient also recalled waking up in her hospital bed to find Farmer pinching her nipples, then lifting her gown and sexually assaulting her with his hand.

“She just had to sit there and take it,” the prosecutor said.

Bluth told jurors they would not see that victim on the witness stand, because she committed suicide in July. She was 56.

However, the woman’s testimony was recorded in January 2012, and District Judge Carolyn Ellsworth has given prosecutors permission to present the videotape during the trial.

Another woman was taken to Centennial Hills after suffering a seizure at her home. She initially considered Farmer a “breath of fresh air” because he was so attentive, “always there, always paying very close attention to her,” Bluth said.

The prosecutor told jurors they will hear testimony that Farmer twice opened the woman’s hospital gown, exposing her breasts, for no reason.

Around the same time, another woman went to the hospital because of chest pains.

Bluth said Farmer entered the room, introduced himself and opened the front of the woman’s gown. The prosecutor said Farmer then touched the patient’s right breast.

Another nurse witnessed Farmer’s interaction with the patient and reported his behavior to her supervisor.

Also around that time, another seizure victim was taken to Centennial Hills. The woman was so impressed by Farmer’s attentiveness that she asked for his personal information so she could write a letter of recommendation for him.

“However, things quickly changed,” Bluth said.

The prosecutor said Farmer soon had his hand under the woman’s gown, sexually assaulting her with his fingers.

Bluth said he also rubbed the woman’s breasts and performed oral sex on her.

“She was paralyzed with fear,” the prosecutor told jurors. “She had no idea what to do.”

Bluth said an exam showed several crescent-shaped lacerations, consistent with injuries caused by fingernails, around the woman’s vagina. A picture of those lacerations was shown to the jury Friday.

A 911 call from the woman’s husband led to Farmer’s arrest shortly after the incident. The defendant has been held at the Clark County Detention Center for nearly six years while awaiting trial.

“Ladies and gentleman, this case is about three things,” Bashor said during his opening statement. “It’s about money. It’s about the media. And it’s about what makes sense.”

The two women who accused Farmer of sexually assaulting them later filed lawsuits against him and the hospital. One of those cases was resolved with a confidential settlement in September.

Bashor also said most of the victims came forward only after news media became involved in the story.

Farmer is charged with open and gross lewdness in another criminal case involving a patient at Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital.