Two more women allege Lexington nurse tech sexually assaulted them at hospital
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- Authorities report new victims and file two additional first-degree rape counts.
- Victims allege assaults during nighttime care at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital.
- Defendant Johnnie Sparkman remains jailed on combined $20,000 bond ahead of arraignment.
More women have come forward with allegations against a Lexington nurse tech previously charged with a sex crime.
Johnnie Sparkman, 62, of Richmond, was charged this fall with first-degree sodomy after a patient at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital told police he sexually assaulted her Oct. 23.
He is now facing two new counts of first-degree rape-incapable of consent/physically helpless, after more women reported incidents involving Sparkman to police, according to court documents.
One of the women was hospitalized in the spinal cord care area at Cardinal Hill for two weeks in September 2022. Court documents say Sparkman was tasked with cleaning the woman at least seven times, and he allegedly sexually assaulted her during one of the cleanings.
The incidents happened during the late evening and early morning hours, according to court documents.
Another woman reported to police she was sexually assaulted by Sparkman during her hospitalization at the same facility between September and October 2023. Court documents say the woman was paralyzed from a stroke and woke up while being sexually assaulted in the middle of the night.
Sparkman allegedly told the woman, “I’m just here to freshen you up,” according to court documents.
The woman was later moved to a different room and did not require as much care. Court documents say on a separate occasion, Sparkman allegedly visited the woman in the new room and told her, “I am here to freshen you up.”
When the woman refused and threatened to assault Sparkman, court documents say he left, and the woman believed he had been looking for her.
In court documents, prosecutors say this woman’s story shows a pattern Sparkman sexually assaulted those under his care at Cardinal Hill.
Sparkman is being held at the Fayette County Detention Center on a $15,000 bond for the rape charges and a $5,000 bond for the sodomy charge, according to jail records. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the rape charges Tuesday, Dec. 9 at Fayette District Court.
