JPS tech accused in sex assault was fired. Patients had complained about him for years

A former John Peter Smith Health Network employee accused of sexually assaulting a patient at the hospital’s psychiatric facility in 2016 had a history of complaints from other female patients but continued to work at the facility, according to court records.

Steven Dewayne Ashley, a former psychiatric technician, is accused of forcing a 30-year-old patient to give him oral sex inside a bathroom of Trinity Springs Pavilion, which provides inpatient behavioral health services.

The case is expected to go to trial in September.

JPS and court documents show Ashley, 47, had been previously accused of “inappropriate interactions” by at least four other patients dating back to 2013.

Despite this, he remained employed with the hospital until the sexual assault allegation arose in February 2016, and he was fired.

“Since hire, leadership has received several concerns from female patients regarding inappropriate interaction with Steven,” a supervisor wrote in an employee counseling form regarding Ashley’s termination. “These complaints create a concern for patient safety.”

A spokeswoman for JPS, J.R. Labbe, declined to comment or respond to questions, citing the upcoming trial and “the potential prejudice or harm it might cause in the ongoing proceedings.”

Ashley remains free after posting a $15,000 bond.

His defense attorney, Tracie Shelby, did not return a message seeking comment.

The allegations

In a statement to the Tarrant County Hospital District police, the woman detailed her contact with Ashley as follows.

Ashley began talking to her on Feb. 12, 2016, asking her to smile and cheer up and telling her that he sees people like her as a challenge. He then began following her around, “talking to her about what a good guy he is and how he was a dying breed.”

The woman said Ashley later entered her room and hugged her because he said she looked like she needed one.

In later visits, he’d bring her snacks and more hugs, and the hugs soon escalated to kisses on the cheek, then the lips, she told police.

Ashley “repeatedly told her to not say anything to anybody or they would both get into trouble,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit written by Detective Israel Cisneros.

The next day, Ashley returned and took her to a corner of her room that was outside the sight of surveillance cameras. He kissed and fondled her and told her that she had a hot body, the affidavit states.

The woman said Ashley “was trying to get his hands inside her clothes to touch her private parts and she was telling him ‘No, Stop’ as she tried to get away from him,” Cisneros wrote.

But Ashley continued to grope her and pushed her into the bathroom, where she was sexually assaulted, she told police. Over the next two days, he sexually assaulted her twice more, the affidavit states.

She said he also pressured her to give him her phone number and address.

She told police in a written statement included in court records that she gave him the number to a cell phone that was no longer in use and another number to her grandparents’ house, where she no longer resided.

She said she kept quiet about what happened until Feb. 15, 2016, breaking down while speaking with a crisis respite unit representative, who in turn alerted other hospital staff.

“I feel kind of bad since I promised Stephen so many times that I would not tell a soul, and I kept telling him I didn’t want him to get in trouble but he would not stop harassing me,” she said in her statement to investigators.

The woman told police because Ashley had looked at her patient chart, she was afraid for her safety and that of her family. But she said she would answer questions “to prevent this from happening to any other psych patient who may not be able to defend themselves,” her statement said.

Sexual assault exam

A sexual assault exam conducted on the same day as the woman’s report would later reveal semen on her body.

In a voluntary interview with police three days later, Ashley told a police sergeant that the woman had been complimenting him and was very “clingy” to him. He said he’d only given the woman a side hug.

When asked for a DNA sample, however, Ashley refused and said he wanted to consult with his attorney.

He was fired by JPS later that month, according to court records.

In April 2016, Ashley was working as a teacher assistant at Lincoln High School, a Dallas magnet school, when investigators arrived with a search warrant for his DNA.

The arrest warrant affidavit states comparison tests later linked Ashley’s DNA profile with that found in the semen on the woman’s body.

A DISD spokeswoman said Tuesday that Ashley was terminated from the district on Nov. 7, 2016.

Fight over records

Ashley had worked part-time for JPS since August 2012.

Prosecutors obtained a subpoena in January 2017 seeking Ashley’s employment records from JPS. The health network provided 117 pages.

In May 2017, prosecutors obtained another subpoena seeking additional records from JPS pertaining to any complaints against Ashley. They pointed out that at least two of the documents previously released by the hospital suggested there were other potential victims.

But attorneys representing JPS moved to quash the subpoena, arguing that the documents the state wanted are confidential under medical committee and peer review committee privileges and HIPPA.

A hearing was held on the motion to quash in July 2017, and JPS was ordered to release 25 additional pages to the state.

Through those documents, prosecutors learned the names of other potential victims and “has seen details of potential criminal offenses committed by defendant (Ashley) during his employment at JPS,” court documents state.

This week, prosecutor Kacey Fickes filed notices of intent to introduce evidence during the trial of other alleged crimes or bad acts.

According to those notices and other court documents, other allegations against Ashley include:

▪ In September 2013, he was accused of flirting with patients, asking for their phone numbers and rubbing a patient’s feet while alone with that patient in a room.

A letter dated the next month indicates JPS looked into the complaint but doesn’t indicate whether Ashley was disciplined.

▪ In December 2013, a patient reported that Ashley had groped and exposed himself to her inside her room at Trinity Springs. She said Ashley later called her, asking her to meet him at an Addison bar when she was released from the hospital.

Ashley denied the allegation, and the case was closed by the Tarrant County Hospital District police as “unfounded” later that month, the documents state.

As a result of the investigation, however, JPS coached Ashley on the importance of not leaving his assigned unit, keeping conversations with patients professional and avoiding the unit where the woman was a patient, the documents show.

▪ In November 2015, Ashley allegedly touched the backside of a patient with his hand, followed her into a bathroom and asked her to expose her breasts to him.

That same month, court documents allege, he whispered sexually suggestive statements to another patient while she showered. He flirted with that patient, asked if she was married and asked her for her phone number, but she refused.

He got her number anyway, taking it from her patient file, and called her multiple times, the documents allege.

After the latest patient’s claim that Ashley sexual assaulted her in mid-February 2016, a letter included in the court documents indicates the hospital initially was “unable to substantiate” the woman’s complaint.

The letter, dated Feb. 19, 2016, and sent to the woman, was written four days after the alleged sexual assault was reported and before results of a rape examination had come back.

“We have reviewed your medical record and interviewed staff members involved in your care. While we have been unable to substantiate your complaint, we sincerely apologize that your expectations were not met,” the letter reads. “Please know that we take your concerns very serious and we will continue to train, educate and monitor our staff in their professionalism.”

The hospital, however, fired Ashley on Feb. 25, 2016, records show.

Deanna Boyd: 817-390-7655, @deannaboyd

This story was originally published July 25, 2018 at 9:15 AM.