By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Two female patients at hospitals in Hamilton and Plainsboro allegedly were raped by the same Princeton man who worked at the facilities in 2013 and 2015, authorities have alleged.
Richard Smith is charged in an eight-count indictment with committing first-degree aggravated sexual assault on both women, identified in the charging document by their initials. Each offense carries up to 20 years in state prison, with Mr. Smith also facing other sexual assault and sexual contact charges, according to an indictment handed up by a Middlesex County grand jury on Friday.
Employed as a patient care technician at University Medical Center of Princeton, he allegedly sexually assaulted an “incapacitated” 25-year-old woman in November, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said last year in announcing charges against him in that case. At the time, that was the only offense he was charged with, although the Prosecutor’s Office said then that there was an active investigation underway. According to Princeton Healthcare System, parent company of the hospital, Mr. Smith is no longer employed by the company.
The indictment also charged him with a previously undisclosed sexual assault, of a female patient on April 30, 2013, at a hospital, in Hamilton.
Neither the hospital where that alleged offense occurred nor the victim’s age is identified in the indictment. But Mr. Smith had worked for Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton before going to work at University Medical Center in May 2015, the Prosecutor’s Office has said.
Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Jim O’Neill did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Mr. Smith’s lawyer, deputy public defender Susan Martin, also did not return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.
After his arrest last year, Mr. Smith was taken to the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center and held on $200,000 bail. His current whereabouts could not be immediately determined.
The Prosecutor’s Office has said that Mr. Smith, 40, also had worked at an undisclosed medical practice in Princeton before working for Robert Wood Johnson Hospital.
