By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
A former employee of two hospitals in Plainsboro and Hamilton pleaded not guilty Thursday to raping two different female patients when he worked there.
In his green jail clothes, Richard D. Smith was inside a New Brunswick courtroom in the morning to attend his arraignment before Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus. Sitting inside the jury box, the Princeton man held an envelope and let his attorney do the talking for him during the brief proceeding.
Deputy public defender Susan M. Martin entered the not guilty plea on Mr. Smith’s behalf to an eight-count indictment charging him with first-degree aggravated sexual assault and related offenses against the two women, identified in charging documents by their initials.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, the agency prosecuting Mr. Smith, has alleged that he sexually assaulted an “incapacitated” 25-year-old woman in November at University Medical Center of Princeton, in Plainsboro. Mr. Smith, employed as a patient care technician at the time, allegedly raised her hospital gown and touched her “improperly,” authorities have alleged. He had been working at the hospital since May.
Mr. Smith, 40, was charged Nov.17, but more details emerged.
The law enforcement investigation revealed another case, this one dating to April 2013, at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, involving a female patient there. Though the alleged crime occurred in Mercer County, authorities will prosecute both cases in New Brunswick.
In court, the judge outlined the plea bargain that the Prosecutor’s Office had offered him. The deal calls for him to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and receive a total of 24 years in state prison.
The case is not at the stage where Mr. Smith must formally accept or reject the offer. Ms. Martin indicated in court she wants to go over the evidence with him, as his next court date was scheduled for Aug.26.
Mr. Smith left the courtroom to return to the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center, where he has been held on $200,000 bail since November.
