Man pleads guilty in rape of paralyzed woman

A former nursing assistant who was charged with raping an incapacitated woman at a long-term-care center in North Seattle last year has pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in King County Superior Court.

Lamin Darboe entered a modified guilty plea, known as an Alford plea, to the charge, in which the defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges he likely would be convicted if the case went to trial. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.

Defense attorney Gene Piculell said Darboe came to the U.S. from Gambia to start a new life. "Instead, this has been a tragedy for him," he said.

Darboe's first trial on the charge ended in a mistrial in July after jurors couldn't agree on a verdict. King County prosecutors decided a short time later to retry him.

According to charging papers, Darboe was working at Kindred Hospital in the summer of 2006 when he fondled and raped a 31-year-old woman who was paralyzed and couldn't speak as the result of a stroke. The woman used an alphabet board to tell authorities about the rape, according to charging documents. After the rape was reported, Kindred officials placed Darboe on administrative leave.

Darboe, who is originally from Gambia, left the U.S. on Aug. 4, 2006, two days before he was charged with the rape. He was arrested in early September by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a Philadelphia-area airport as he arrived on a flight from Germany.

Darboe had been acquitted in another rape case earlier in 2006 and had been fired from a previous nursing job at Swedish Medical Center for inappropriate behavior with female patients.

In 2002, while working at Swedish, Darboe reportedly made sexual comments to a woman and penetrated her with a finger while giving her a bath, according to King County court papers. Also while he was working at Swedish, Darboe gave his e-mail address and cellphone number to another female patient after she told him she wasn't interested in him, court papers say.

Darboe was fired by Swedish in July 2002, according to the hospital. Swedish officials said they filed a complaint against Darboe with the state Department of Health about three weeks after firing him, but the Department of Health said it never received the complaint.

In February 2006, Darboe was acquitted of kidnapping and second-degree rape in Snohomish County after he was accused of kidnapping and forcing sex on a woman.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.