Connecticut Crime Victim Lawyer Tim O’Keefe

DANBURY — A Danbury Hospital employee has been charged with sexually assaulting a patient in June, police said Thursday.

Michael Wilmot, 47, was arrested after a lengthy investigation and charged with two counts of first-degree sexual assault, according to a police news release. Wilmot was in custody on $50,000 bail Thursday morning.

The alleged assaults happened on June 12, 2012, police said.

Wilmot was a patient care technician at the hospital, they said, and the patient was under his care.

In a written statement, a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday that Wilmot has been suspended from the hospital.

“Since this involves an active legal matter, we cannot comment in detail. We can say that the involved employee has been suspended,” said Andrea Rynn.

“We want to reassure the public that the well-being and security of our patients is our top priority, and that we are fully committed to providing a safe environment for their care,” she said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court has affirmed the child sex abuse verdict against St. Francis Hospital.  You can read the CT Supreme Court’s opinion here: http://www.jud.ct.gov/external/supapp/Cases/AROcr/CR309/309CR219.pdf

This jury trial was handled by Attorney Doug Mahoney of Bridgeport.  The trial law firm of Kenny, O’Keefe & Usseglio, P.C.  represented more than sixty plaintiffs in the St. Francis Hospital Child Sex Abuse case.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please e-mail us at tokeefe@kou-law.com

WILLIMANTIC — State police major crime squad detectives are searching a house at 11 Potter St. where a 3-year-old girl died Thursday night.

State police said Willimantic firefighters and medics were called to the house for an unresponsive child at 10:38 p.m. The child was taken to Windham Community Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Willimantic police were notified and responded to the home. The child is to be transported to the state medical examiner’s office in Farmington.

Major crime squad detectives are assisting Willimantic police with the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Willimantic police at 860-465-3135.

Attorneys for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at Wesleyan University argued in a court filing this week that anonymity is inappropriate for a woman who has filed a lawsuit saying she was raped at a party at the Greek organization in 2010.

A motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court claims that the woman’s use of a pseudonym “allows her to make defamatory statements against [the fraternity and Wesleyan] behind a cloak of anonymity,” the Hartford Courant reported.

The former Wesleyan undergraduate, identified in court papers only as “Jane Doe,” is suing the university for allegedly failing to warn the campus properly about a fraternity that some students referred to as a “Rape Factory.” The suit claims that Wesleyan, a private school in central Connecticut, violated the federal gender-equity law Title IX by not protecting students and failing to provide Doe with resources after she was raped at the frat. She is also suing the Mu Epsilon chapter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and its national organization.

The woman said she was raped in a locked room during a 2010 Halloween party at Beta Theta Pi by John O’Neill, who was neither a member of the frat nor a student at the school. O’Neill pleaded no contest to lesser charges of third-degree assault and first-degree unlawful restraint and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Lawyers for the fraternity argue the woman “fails to provide support for her claim that the disclosure of her name would affect her emotional and physical well-being,” the Courant reports.

However, Doe’s suit contends that after her report, Wesleyan officials responded with emailed warnings to the student body and housing policy changes that led to harassment by some student supporters of the fraternity, who discovered her identity and targeted her with protests outside of her dorm and elsewhere.

“We disagree with the Fraternity Defendants’ position on the pseudonym issue,” said Timothy O’Keefe, an attorney for Doe, in a statement to The Huffington Post. “We believe Connecticut law protects a sexual assault victim’s identity from full public disclosure in these circumstances.”

O’Keefe said they plan to explain their position fully in objection papers they plan to file “sometime over the next several days.”

In April, Beta Theta Pi was the site of an alleged physical assault and an attempted sexual assault, the Wesleyan Argus reported. Beta president Elliot Albert emphasized at the time they were outraged and said, “We collectively need to do a better job at raising awareness and prevention of these types of events.”