Taylor & Weatherford Fight for Victims Assaulted by Sacramento Nurse

Registered nurse Gregory Allen Harms is facing felony charges and two lawsuits stemming from three sexual assaults on patients under his care. John Taylor and Natalie Weatherford, partners at Taylor & Ring, are representing one of Harms’ victims, who was assaulted by while she was in intensive care and immobile.

Harms, whose license is now suspended, has denied all accusations and his attorney claims that the women may have been simply “hallucinating” due to heavy-duty medications. Harms faces six felony charges and two lawsuits claiming harm and negligence. One case, with a victim named Jane Doe, is particularly egregious. After experiencing a serious medical event, Doe was placed in intensive care, unable to speak or move any part of her body.

While completely helpless and immobilized, Doe was sexually assaulted by her night nurse – Harms – on several occasions. Taylor told the Sacramento Bee, “It’s horrifying, just absolutely terrifying. She was completely alert and aware, and just unable to physically resist him and couldn’t talk.”

When she was able, she reported the assault to Methodist Hospital, upon which she was told she must have imagined it. “So you’ve got a predator who’s taking the most vulnerable people, both in terms of their ability to defend themselves at the time that he’s attacking them, and then who had the built-in defense of when the victim finally says something it’s, ‘You’re imagining this, it’s part of the medication,’” Taylor said.

He also added that the psychological and emotional effects of the sexual assault will have lasting consequences on Ms. Doe – “Anytime that she goes back to deal with medical staff, whether it’s office visits or tests that require her to go back into a hospital, she’s terrified.”

The goal of these legal actions are to hold Harms both criminally and civilly responsible for his offenses. Further, they also hold companies like Methodist Hospital responsible for hiring and retaining known predators. SacBee reports that authorities and licensing agencies were aware of accusations against Harms as far back as 2011, but had failed to take action against him at the time. This means that before his arrest in 2019, Harms was assaulting patients for at least eight years. There may be dozens more out there.

We are honored to represent Jane Doe and are proud that she has come forward in this fight for justice.

If you need to talk to someone right now about a sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

At Taylor & Ring, we are dedicated to protecting survivors of sexual assault. If you would like to tell us your story, get in touch with us today. To arrange a consultation with an experienced attorney, call our Los Angeles team at 310-776-6390, or fill out our contact form.