A Hialeah psychiatric hospital staffer has been accused of raping a patient
A six-foot-two, 210-pound male staff member at a Hialeah psychiatric hospital is accused of holding down a patient in her bathroom and raping her.
An arrest report says Hialeah resident Yadiel Perez-Delgado, 34, denies that’s what happened Monday morning at Southern Winds Hospital. But, after reviewing surveillance video, Hialeah police arrested Perez-Delgado on charges of sexual battery, false imprisonment and sexual misconduct in a mental health facility.
An emailed statement from Southern Winds CEO Ana Bovo to the Miami Herald Tuesday afternoon said Perez-Delgado had been fired.
“During the interview with the victim patient, she informed the detective of a different incident involving inappropriate touching of a different patient from the same mental health technician,” Bovo’s statement said. “The Hialeah Police Department is also investigating this matter.”
According to the report, the one thing certain is Perez-Delgado violated Southern Winds policy by partially closing the door to the patient’s bedroom when he entered. The chief nursing officer says staffers aren’t supposed to close the bedroom door while in a patient’s room doing their job.
Perez-Delgado’s job as a “mental health technician” was to check on patients every 15 minutes., the chief nursing officer told police. “Mental health technician” isn’t listed as a profession by the Florida Department of Health’s license verification site. Yadiel Perez-Delgado isn’t listed among the nine Florida licensed medical professionals with the last name “Perez-Delgado” or “Perez Delgado.”
He’s been working at Southern Winds for about a month and a half, the chief nursing officer told police.
Surveillance video and a third party involved
The patient said Perez-Delgado came into her room “and began making verbal sexual advances towards her” while partially closing the door. She said she ignored him and went into her bathroom, but Perez-Delgado followed.
Once there, she said, he held her in place via hands on her back, pulled her pants and underwear down and raped her. This didn’t last long, she said, because her roommate “walked into the bedroom and thwarted [Perez-Delgado’s] actions.”
He left and she reported him to one of Perez-Delgado’s female coworkers.
Perez-Delgado, the report said, claimed when he went into her room, he saw her bending over her bathroom sink with pants and underwear pulled down enough to expose her rear. He told police she “encouraged him to touch her buttocks by telling him to touch it and that it is a real buttock.”
Police went to the video and thought it backed up the patient. Their report says the video shows Perez-Delgado going into the bedroom a minute before the roommate goes into the bedroom. Immediately, the report says, Perez-Delgado leaves.
This story was originally published May 11, 2021 at 1:52 PM.
