MEMPHIS, Tenn. — We are learning more about two men accused of raping a 15-year-old girl at Saint Francis Hospital’s psych ward in December.
Memphis Police arrested two men, Nigel Johnson, 30, and Jarvis Beck, 31, and charged them with statutory rape by an authority figure. The men raped a 15-year-old female patient while she stayed at the Saint Francis Hospital psych ward in December 2016, according to a lawyer for the victim’s family.
Saint Francis officials said the individuals no longer work for the hospital.
WREG has spoken with current and former employees of the facility who explained the conditions inside and what they knew about the suspects.
Based on Tennessee state background checks, Beck has never been arrested or charged with any crime. Johnson’s past interactions with police were limited to driving with a suspended license.
A former employee described Beck as a college-educated role model for the younger patients.
She also said Johnson took risks with his behavior, but she never imagined what lawyers now say happened.
“It was the way he’d look at the patients, I didn’t like it. I’d say, ‘Nigel you cant go in the female’s rooms,’” the former co-worker said. “I never thought something like this would have occurred, but the signs were always there.”
She said she never reported him because she was afraid she’d lose her job.
Meanwhile, Shelby County Schools officials also confirmed Johnson worked in a public school through May 2017. They said he did not report his rape arrest to school authorities.
“With parents out there who had children in these facilities these gentlemen worked at, they need to come forth and tell their stories so nobody else get hurt,” the former employee said.
Memphis Police records obtained by WREG showed a DeSoto County detention center employee actually heard two people talking about Johnson having sex with a patient. That employee then notified Saint Francis officials, who called police and fired Johnson back in January.
WREG spoke with a current hospital employee who did not want to be identified. But she defended her employer: “It puts a bad cloud over Saint Francis as a whole. It’s ridiculous because the hospital is not a bad place. Just two bad people,” she said.
But other employees painted a different picture of an understaffed hospital where management allowed protocol to slip through the cracks.
“We used to tell the nursing managers we didn’t think males should sit with female patients,” the former employee said.
A representative for Tenet Healthcare, the Texas-based company that owns Saint Francis Hospital, said the victim’s family intended to file a lawsuit, so they couldn’t comment on the situation.
