State worker charged with sexually abusing vulnerable patient at Shoreline facility

According to our Seattle Times News Partner Matt Rosenberg in the September 16, 2011 Social Capital Review, a worker at a group home in the Echo Lake Neighborhood of Shoreline sexually abused one of the developmentally-disabled residents.

The worker denied the charges, but said he couldn't afford to fight the State Health Department.

With his signature on a state health department disciplinary document, a former nursing assistant at a group home operated in Shoreline by the Washington Department of Social and Health Services admitted he sexually abused a developmentally-delayed 57-year-old female patient in his care, and agreed to surrender his license for 10 years for unprofessional conduct. 

According to the “Stipulated Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Agreed Order” that he recently signed, Bart Finkbiner, of Shoreline, from about November 2009 until late January 2010 “sexually abused Patient A on multiple occasions” without consent, including vaginal and anal intercourse, and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. The order states that a strong administrative penalty is justified because of the vulnerability of the victim and because the sexual contact was non-consensual.

The entire story here.