VAN WERT — A civil complaint filed in the Van Wert Common Pleas Court alleges a Van Wert man gave drugs to and sexually assaulted a woman while working for Ridgeview Behavioral Hospital in Middle Point.
The complaint filed in July says in July 2023, the victim consented to be transported in the hospital’s van from Parkersburg, West Virginia, to the hospital at 17872 Lincoln Highway, Middle Point. Patrick Tracy, who was the director of corporate operations of the hospital’s parent company, Oglethorpe, Inc., was “acting in an authorized capacity to transport, register and/or admit patients to Ridgeview Hospital.”
Ridgeview is described as “an 84-bed in-patient psychiatric hospital specializing in the treatment of mental health issues and co-occurring addiction issues.”
The complaint also read Oglethorpe, Inc., which is headquartered in Florida, “has not registered to do business in the state of Ohio but is nonetheless conducting business operations through employees working in the state of Ohio.”
During the trip between July 11 and 12, Tracy allegedly persuaded the victim “to ingest illegal drugs commonly known to make persons more compliant and susceptible to acts of sexual assault and violence,” then “sexually assaulted, abused, molested, fondled and/or raped” the victim, according to the complaint. Another part of the complaint claimed Tracy and the victim were in the van for 20 hours, and Tracy “raped her, choked her about the neck and left her lay in a corn field.”
The complaint claims before this incident, the hospital was aware of other complaints about Tracy being a sexual predator with a past and current history of substance abuse and mental health issues but took no action on it.
There were four counts in the complaint: sexual battery/sexual imposition/rape, false imprisonment, negligent hiring/retention and vicarious liability. The victim’s injuries and damages were listed as “permanent psychological injuries, past and future medical/psychological bills, past and future pain, suffering and mental anguish, past and future loss of enjoyment of life, past and future humiliation, embarrassment, indignity and shame, economic damages, diminished earning capacity and future lost wages.”
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
