A 60-year-old nurse sexually assaulted three women under his care while inserting a catheter in the patients in the space of three weeks at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday as the defendant’s attorney said her client is a “great” nurse who continues to work in his profession.
Paul Alden Miller is charged with three felony counts of sexual battery by fraud and three misdemeanor counts of touching an intimate part of another person, and a misdemeanor count of inflicting injury on an elder adult.
Miller is accused of molesting a 56-year-old woman, a 68-year-old woman and a 22-year-old woman.
The then-56-year-old woman came into the hospital on March 19, 2021, for dizziness, said Deputy District Attorney Kelcie Anne Wiemann.
The woman testified Thursday that she went to the emergency room because, “I was having vertigo that wouldn’t go away.”
She said she relieved herself in the bathroom before she was called in for an exam. When Miller suggested an external catheter because she was going to have an MRI done, she said, “I think I agreed it was a good idea.”
Miller tugged her yoga pants off and placed the external catheter on her, she testified.
“There was a lot of fiddling to get it in place,” she testified. “It felt like there was inappropriate touching… I felt really uncomfortable.”
Miller was “very touchy feely,” as he caressed her, she testified.
Initially, “I thought he was trying to be comforting,” but then he decided to place an internal catheter in her, she testified.
“There was a lot of fondling and touching,” as the internal catheter was inserted, she testified. “He was rubbing on my clitoris.”
At some point, “I finally just said, `What are you trying to do? I just went to the bathroom,’ ” she testified.
Miller appeared to brush off the question, she said.
“He just asked me if I felt relaxed now,” she testified.
The way he handled the catheter “seemed more like an intimate way,” she testified.
The then-22-year-old woman went into the hospital to be treated for injuries she suffered in a car crash, Wiemann said. She returned on March 31, 2021, with her father and Miller sexually assaulted her with a catheter, Wiemann said.
“She was feeling dizzy at first but she was able to walk,” the prosecutor said.
She had never had a catheter inserted before and asked if it would hurt, Wiemann said. As he inserted it, she said, “Ow that hurts,” the prosecutor said.
Miller is accused of also manipulating her clitoris, Wiemann said. He also asked her “does this feel better,” as he touched her clitoris “over and over again with his thumb,” the prosecutor said.
That woman came forward and filed a report with law enforcement the next day, the prosecutor said.
The 68-year-old woman came to the emergency room on April 9, 2021, with her husband to be treated for vomiting and anxiety, Wiemann said.
“She was yelling, screaming at times,” the prosecutor said.
On that day, Miller was being “job shadowed” by a nursing student who helped place a catheter in the woman.
Later, Miller returned to the woman alone and also molested her vagina, the prosecutor said.
“When he said, `Does that feel good?’ it was at that point she realized she was being sexually assaulted,” Wiemann said. “She started screaming… Everybody then runs into her room and she tells the defendant you know what you did to me. You touched me.”
The woman had catheters inserted in her about 30 times over the years, but never had an experience like the one with Miller, the prosecutor said.
A nursing expert is expected to testify “There is no medical purpose to rub the clitoris” when inserting a catheter, Wiemann said.
Miller also did not document the insertion of the catheters, the prosecutor said.
Miller’s attorney, Sharon Beth Marshall, told jurors, “There are bad eggs in every profession, but Paul Miller is not one of them. Nurse Miller is a great nurse with solid character. He is still a working, great nurse.”
Marshall told jurors, “The one common thing you must decide is whether there was inappropriate touching.”
Miller will have his own nursing expert testify, Marshall said.
“She will tell you that you don’t have all the facts you need,” Marshall said.
The defense attorney said each of the women consented to have a catheter inserted and that it is not required to document the procedure, Marshall said.
The 68-year-old woman came into the hospital doing “Kathy Bates-type screaming and it didn’t stop,” Marshall said.
“You’ll be very hard pressed to understand her story at all,” Marshall said.