A recently fired employee of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has been charged with three counts of taking indecent liberties with two children who came to the hospital for outpatient procedures, Winston-Salem police said Friday.
William Keith Roberts, 56, of Pilot Mountain, was already in Forsyth County jail on an indecent-liberty charge unrelated to the hospital charges, police said.
According to a statement released Friday by Wake Forest Baptist, the charges involved three alleged incidents at an on-campus imaging facility, involving two minor patients who came in for diagnostic procedures.
Two of the incidents occurred in 2010 and the other in 2007, the hospital said. The hospital did not identify the employee in its statement.
Roberts' attorney, Clarke Dummit, reached late Friday, maintained his client's innocence.
Roberts worked as a registered nurse, according to Maureen Sintich, the hospital's chief nursing officer.
Hospital officials said police notified the center May 10 of the complaint involving the alleged 2010 incident. Roberts was placed on administrative leave, and a hospital incident response team was notified.
Wake Forest Baptist's statement said Roberts was fired June 28 based on information gathered in its investigation and the police investigation.
The alleged incident has been reported to regulatory officials at the N.C. Board of Nursing, the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation and The Joint Commission, a health-care oversight agency.
Hospital officials said the 2007 incident sparked an internal and police investigation, but the allegations could not be substantiated and the case was closed. No charges were filed.
"The employee was initially placed on administrative leave until the case was closed, but his employment was not terminated because he was viewed as exemplary, with the highest performance ratings over a 10-year period, and was highly complimented by patients and their families. He then took an involuntary leave and returned to work at the medical center in 2008," the hospital statement said.
Winston-Salem police Capt. David Clayton said that in May of this year, a 7-year-old boy reported he was touched inappropriately on two separate occasions during outpatient procedures at the medical center in 2010.
During the investigation, they reviewed evidence from the 2007 allegation and re-interviewed that witness, who was 13 in 2007, Clayton said.
Clayton said there was never an issue with the boy's credibility in the 2007 case, but investigators didn't have any evidence to corroborate his story. Clayton said police got enough corroborating evidence this time to make an indecent-liberties charge.
Investigators, working with Stokes County authorities, also learned of another accusation unrelated to the hospital charges that was alleged to have occurred April 9 in a parking lot on Trademart Boulevard off Peters Creek Parkway.
Clayton said that incident occurred during an outing that included the victim, a 7-year-old family friend of Roberts'.
Dummit said late Friday that as part of his client's job as a nurse, he anesthetized patients with an 8-milligram dose of a drug called midazolam, which Dummit said can lead to hallucinations.
Wake Forest Baptist officials declined to comment on the attorney's comments. Clayton could not be reached for comment on Dummit's statements.
Wake Forest Baptist officials said they were "stunned and saddened by these alleged incidents because they represent a breach in the trust that our patients and their families put in us every day."
The hospital said it has changed procedures to allow a family member to be with a child throughout most of the imaging visit as long as it is safe for the family member to do so.
Roberts was being held Friday night in the Forsyth County jail with bond set at $125,000.
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