KINGWOOD — Mediation will take place in a civil case filed four years ago against Hopemont Hospital and a John Doe, alleging a woman was drugged and raped while a patient at the state-owned facility.
The family of the woman, who has been ruled not mentally competent, filed the suit on her behalf. They removed her from the hospital immediately after learning the alleged circumstances leading to the lawsuit.
Preston Circuit Judge Steve Shaffer told attorneys in the case Tuesday that he wants mediation to occur before the next hearing. Mediation is set for Sept. 4.
Hopemont is a long-term care facility operated by the State Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.
The Dominion Post has withheld the names of the family in order to protect the identity of the alleged victim.
The woman’s son filed suit after she was taken from Hopemont to Preston Memorial Hospital in 2015 because of a fall from a wheelchair. At the emergency room, family members noticed “extensive” bruising and a drug test revealed “a high level of opiates in her system,” which had not been prescribed to her, according to the suit.
Narcan was administered, and the woman screamed “get him off me,” the suit says. At that point the family requested a rape kit and sexual assault exam.
The state initially challenged the lawsuit in part on the basis that the son was not the woman’s legal guardian. A court in Maryland, where the alleged victim now lives, appointed two other family members as her guardians, and the suit continued with attorney Kevin Tipton still representing the family.
The state filed a motion for summary judgment in the case, asking it be dismissed. Judge Shaffer did not rule on that motion Tuesday, preferring to let mediation occur first.
