Randy Plein, a male nurse, was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for molesting three young female patients at St. Maarten Medical Center.
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance sentenced a male nurse on Tuesday to four years in prison after finding him guilty of molesting three young female patients at St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) between July 2022 and April 2024.
Randy Ivan Johan Plein (37) was also handed a nine-year ban from working in the healthcare sector and ordered to pay NAf. 10,350 in damages to one of his victims.
Plein stood trial earlier this month on three counts of sexual assault. For two of these, he was accused of drugging the women with the powerful sedative Midazolam and inappropriately touching them when they were in a semi-conscious state.
A box of Midazolam vials had been found in a search of Plein’s home in early May. This drug – often used to sedate people in intensive care units or as a precursor to surgical anesthesia – causes sleepiness, muscle weakness and memory loss.
However, the judge acquitted the male nurse of sexual assault, siding with defence lawyer Shaira Bommel that, although the sedative had been in Plein’s possession, there was still not enough evidence to prove he had actually used the substance to drug the women.
Instead, the judge found Plein guilty of the lesser crime of molestation, agreeing with the prosecutor that the victims’ statements were reliable, authentic and detailed.
Additionally, the judge ruled that two of the victims were supported by witnesses who attest to their distraught emotional states shortly after the alleged crimes. For example, one victim had called her father around 1:00am, and he told police that his daughter was crying hysterically and wanted to be taken home.
Plein was arrested on May 6 on suspicion of having sexually abused only one of his patients, but at the time police and the Prosecutor’s Office issued a call for more victims to come forward. According to Bommel, a social media group of nearly 1,000 people had also formed around this time, which had named Plein and circulated his photo.
During the trial earlier this month, Bommel said these factors influenced the testimony of the earliest victim, who, she noted, only gave a statement on May 7 despite her allegation stemming from almost two years before.
However, the judge dismissed this argument, saying there are “no indications in the case file that point to statements being influenced.”
The judge ruled that all of the statements have “striking similarities”, which shows that “the modus operandi used by the defendant in all three instances was essentially the same.”
All of the victims were women between 17 and 28 years old and had been staying overnight in the hospital. Plein had come into their rooms after 9:00pm, when they were either sleeping or felt sleepy or dizzy. All told investigators that Plein did not rape them, but had touched them inappropriately on their private parts with his hands and mouth.
“By acting in this way, the defendant only paid attention to the satisfaction of his own sexual needs and completely ignored the interests of the victims who, in need of help, were entrusted to the defendant at a very vulnerable moment in their lives,” the judge said in his verdict. “Given the seriousness of the proven facts, a different or lighter sentence than an unconditional deprivation of liberty is not sufficient.”
The court’s punishment is only slightly less than the prosecutor’s demand for 4½ years in prison and a 9½-year ban against working in the healthcare sector.
Plein had been working as a nurse in St. Maarten since 2019.
In February 2016, a court in his native Suriname sentenced him to 12 months in prison, of which seven were conditional, for lewd acts involving a patient.
