Former Elgin hospital worker charged with sexually abusing patient
A former worker at Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin has been charged with sexually abusing a patient last summer, police said Monday.
Timothy Catlett, 49, of the 100 block of Evergreen Drive, Kirkland, was charged with five counts of criminal sexual abuse, Kane County court records show.
A warrant for Catlett's arrest was issued Feb. 23, Elgin Police Cmdr. Dan O'Shea said. The warrant lists Catlett's address as the 1100 block of Garden Road in DeKalb.
Catlett was arrested March 6. He posted bond March 12 and is next due in court April 9, court records show.
The victim, a 30-year-old man from Huntley, made a police report a few days after he said the assault took place, the night between Aug. 9 and Aug. 10. The man told police he was in the hospital because of a suicide attempt following the “outing” of his HIV status on Facebook.
The victim told police Catlett demanded the victim perform a sexual act on Catlett, and then Catlett demanded the victim perform a sexual act on himself, the police report states.
Catlett no longer works at the hospital, said Kim Waterman, director of communications for Presence Health Fox River Valley region.
“We take complaints of inappropriate behavior toward patients or staff very seriously,” she said. “We investigated the matter thoroughly.”
Waterman would not say which job Catlett held at the hospital nor when he stopped working there, citing personnel confidentiality. “We continue to cooperate fully with police,” she said.
“When dealing with medical records or medical facilities, there's always the issue to protect patient confidentiality, so it sometimes takes a little bit longer to work through that,” O'Shea said, referring to the length of the investigation. “Presence St. Joseph Hospital cooperated with us, but we have to go through all the correct legal steps to obtain information.”
A message left for Catlett's attorney, Liam Dixon, wasn't immediately returned Monday evening.
The victim told the Daily Herald in August hospital staff members refused to allow him to make a police report, which he made after he was discharged. Hospital spokeswoman Waterman declined to comment on that.
The charges carry a penalty anywhere from probation to three years in prison, and registering as a sex offender.