SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES

Chicago Psych Ward Kept Mum About Alleged Sexual Assault of Patient Caught on Video: Report

Illinois officials alerted law enforcement about a potential sexual assault of one patient by another only after journalists began asking questions, according to ProPublica.

Despite the incident being caught on surveillance footage, an Illinois hospital failed to alert authorities that a psychiatric ward patient had potentially been sexually assaulted, according to ProPublica. The alleged assault, carried out by another patient in the ward, occurred on June 24 this year. Officials at Roseland Community Hospital acknowledged that they had not definitively identified the victim as of Tuesday. The apparent assailant is “believed” to be a 49-year-old man with a documented history of psychosis and aggressive behavior, unit employees told state investigators.

A top executive at Roseland, Tim Egan, said that administrators at the hospital only became aware of the event two months after it happened. The facility did not notify the Illinois Department of Public Health, which opened its own investigation after independent complaints were filed a short time later, or law enforcement. The state public health department only told authorities about the incident last week, after ProPublica began asking questions about the case, the outlet reported. Egan insisted to ProPublica that the hospital is continuing to investigate the incident, and that administrators would have alerted police if it had “looked like there was a crime committed.”