Another guilty plea in Iowa nurse sex ring case

| Male patients complain they were forced to kiss and have intercourse with young nurses

| Luke Nozicka, Des Moines Register – Five former Iowa nursing assistants have been arrested following alleged sexual relations with patients.

Jamie Leah Pagel, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to sexual exploitation by a counselor, therapist or school employee, an aggravated misdemeanor.

She and four other former nursing assistants at Prairie View Residential Care Facility in Fayette were charged with having sexual relations with patients while they worked there.

The facility provides care for people with chronic mental illness, intellectual disabilities or medical conditions.

Pagel admitted to kissing a patient while purporting to provide mental health services. Authorities claimed Pagel had a sexual relationship with a client that involved “heavy kissing” and touching of the clothed patient.

The five were charged following a Fayette County Sheriff’s Office investigation.

The first two charged — Megan Marie Penney, 26, of Clermont, and Paige Lynn Johanningmeier, 23, of Elgin — were accused of sneaking patients out, harboring and having sexual relations with them.

Through further investigation after the first two were arrested, deputies learned three other women had been discharged by the care facility for having sexual relations with patients, the sheriff’s office has said.

One resident at the facility, a 28-year-old man, filed a lawsuit in May against Sebring and the facility.

The patient, who said he suffers from schizophrenia and other mental health and physical conditions, claimed the nursing assistant, while on duty, made “inappropriate contact of a sexual nature” with him.

In the lawsuit, the man also said he saw other patients subjected to sexual misconduct that included inappropriate touching, harassment, and intercourse by staff or patients, creating a “hostile and harassing environment detrimental to the welfare” of patients. Read the full story at the Des Moines Register.