Sandusky: Investigators have verified 14 cases of abuse by a night shift nurse who told police he abused nearly 100 patients at health care centers since the 1980s, authorities said.

John Riems, 49,was arrested last week and has been charged with raping a partially paralyzed nursing home patient. That case sparked the investigation and emerged when a relative of the patient became suspicious and called police.

Some of the 14 victims were physically or mentally unable to tell others what had happened, Perkins Township Police Chief Tim McClung said yesterday. He said that the victims included men and women, mostly older, and that two have died.

Riems has worked at 12 nursing homes and hospitals in northern Ohio and one care center in New York. Authorities said he told police the pattern of abuse began shortly after he began his career in 1985.

Riems has been charged in only one case. Authorities would not say whether the other allegations are sexual in nature, but said Riems was able to recall specific information in only about two dozen cases. Their investigation is continuing.

"This is a large and complicated case," said Lloyd Early, an investigator with the Ohio attorney general's office. "It's hard to say how big this will become."

Riems pleaded not guilty to rape and gross sexual imposition last week. He appeared in Sandusky Municipal Court yesterday and was bound over to Erie County Common Pleas court, where his case is likely to presented to a grand jury in the coming weeks.

His attorney, Troy Wisehart, would not say whether Riems had admitted anything to him. He said the man's family is shocked. 

Source : PTI