Tri-Cities mental health employee accused of raping patient to ‘cure’ her

A mental health aide is accused of asking a patient for sex, telling the woman it would “cure the crazy” out of her, court documents show.

Arthur W. de Victoria, 30, has been suspended from his job at Lourdes Counseling Center’s in-patient facility in Richland during the criminal investigation.

The woman told investigators she gave in to his requests because de Victoria had supervisory authority and claimed he could give her “good write ups” for her future court hearings.

De Victoria is charged in Benton County Superior Court with second-degree rape. He is in jail on $100,000 bail.

The Washington state Department of Health shows de Victoria has a “counselor agency affiliated registration,” which was first issued in 2016 and is good until September 2020.

He has never been disciplined by the state, according to the department’s website.

Kelli Foos, a spokeswoman for Lourdes Health, said the health care network’s top priority “is to ensure our patients receive quality care in a safe environment.”

“We take any allegation that this commitment has been violated by an employee very seriously. We are cooperating with the local authorities investigating this matter and have suspended this employee while the investigation is completed,” she continued.

However, she said privacy laws prevent the agency from discussing the case further.

In-patient supervisor

The victim reported July 11 that she had been sexually assaulted by de Victoria the day before. De Victoria reportedly was assigned to supervise the woman, who is in her early 20s.

She told Richland police that she was familiar with de Victoria from her stays at Lourdes.

“She reported that he was the only person she really liked there, because he was the only person at the facility that understood her,” court documents said.

On July 10, de Victoria allegedly approached the woman, said he liked her and wanted to have sex. She declined, but the he came to her room later in the day and repeated his request, documents said.

She again refused, but agreed to dance naked for him, court documents said. She told police “she believed doing this would get (de Victoria) to leave her alone.”

But de Victoria continued to push until the victim agreed, documents said.

The woman reportedly reminded the aide that he could get in trouble if someone at the center found out, and he replied, “The worst that can happen is I will lose my job.”

He allegedly raped her on two separate occasions that day, then went into her room when she was sleeping at night and touched her. When she woke up, de Victoria told her he would see her the next day, court documents said.

Phone recording

De Victoria is accused of recording both sexual assaults on his cellphone. He refused to give a statement to police, but his phone was seized so police could get a warrant to search it.

Detective Chris Mason later spoke with a close friend of the suspect who said de Victoria had shared the allegations and told the friend that everything the victim reported was true, documents said.

De Victoria allegedly told the friend he had been “seduced” by the victim and that his own medication made him make a poor decision.