A former Providence St. Vincent Medical Center nursing assistant formally accused of sexually abusing seven elderly patients has entered a plea agreement that would send him to prison for a quarter-century, a detective said Friday.
Adeladilew MekonenWCSO
Adeladilew Mekonen was indicted last year on 28 sex crime charges and pleaded guilty to two of them Friday, court records show. Detective Robert Rookhuyzen, a Washington County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the agreement calls for 25 years in prison.
Mekonen is set to be sentenced Wednesday in Washington County Circuit Court.
Rookhuyzen said that since detectives learned of the alleged St. Vincent abuse, five additional people came forward and said Mekonen sexually abused them — bringing the total of alleged victims to 12.
The five additional people are former patients and coworkers at West Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center in Multnomah County, where he worked as a nursing assistant from December 2014 to May 2016, Rookhuyzen said.
Rookhuyzen said the plea agreement is “global,” meaning Mekonen won’t be indicted on the Multnomah County allegations if the agreement goes through.
He said the agreement will keep elderly people from reliving the alleged abuse in court and that authorities felt 25 years in prison is a good resolution to the case.
Mekonen, 34, was fired from Providence St. Vincent in September after his arrest.
— Jim Ryan
jryan@oregonian.com
503-221-8005; @Jimryan015
Aimee Green of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed to this report
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
