A Clark County nurse’s license has been suspended for at least nine years based on charges he had sexual contact with a child.
The Nursing Care Quality Assurance Commission determined Zachariah Allard Merritt, 32, had sexual contact with a teenage girl while she was napping at his home on Sept. 3, 2013. The commission also found Merritt, a registered nurse since January 2011, misused alcohol and drugs, according to a news release from the state Department of Health.
Merritt regularly consumed six to eight alcoholic drinks a day and used medication not prescribed to him in a suicide attempt following the incident, according to the health department and court documents.
Merritt was charged in Clark County Superior Court with two felony sex crimes, including third-degree rape, in November 2013. He pleaded guilty July 17 to third-degree assault and communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail — three days credit for time served and 57 days of work release — and one year of community custody, according to court records.
