A former Kaiser Permanente nurse was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison for sexually abusing at least five woman who were patients last year.
Alex M. Woolner, 38, pleaded guilty last week in Washington County Circuit Court to attempted second-degree kidnapping, second-degree invasion of personal privacy, third-degree sexual abuse and computer crime. He was taken into custody pending his sentencing.
Judge D. Charles Bailey ordered Woolner to register as a sex offender, have no contact with any of the victims and avoid all medical care facilities unless he gets permission from his probation officer.
Woolner made no statements in court and stood in an orange jail uniform with his head hung low as Bailey sentenced him.
The abuse occurred at a Kaiser Permanente clinic along Southwest Western Avenue in Beaverton between last January and February. The women were between the ages of 18 and 20, according to Kevin Barton, Washington County senior deputy district attorney.
None of the women appeared in court for the sentencing. A college student who was 20 when abused said in a letter to the court that she wasn’t attending because seeing the former nurse again would do more harm than good.
Since Woolner assaulted her a year ago, she is reminded daily of what he did to her, she wrote. She now lacks the high confidence and self-esteem she once had and often feels unsafe and socially isolated because she now finds it hard to connect with people. She said she also feels overwhelmed and degraded when receiving looks from random men or when people are physically near her.
“The belief I once had of being in a safe world where I would not be physically and mentally abused in such a way have dissipated,” she wrote. “I will never have a life without this pain.”
The woman said she had to quit a job where she closed the business at night because it brought stress and paranoia that she would be taken advantage of and have no one to help her. She said she can no longer go to a hospital, doctor’s office or nurse’s station without panicking and doesn’t believe she will be able to trust a health practitioner again.
Woolner had been registered with the Oregon State Board of Nursing since 2009 and a licensed practical nurse since November 2010, according to state records. He voluntarily surrendered his license in March 2016, and it expired in July.
Two women have since filed suit against Kaiser Permanente — where he worked for two years — alleging negligence by the medical company and sexual abuse and exploitation by Woolner.
Woolner used his position as a nurse to persuade female patients to undergo unnecessary tests, such as breast examinations, or to take their tops off while getting a shot, according to Barton. The nurse also would make derogatory comments to them about their bodies.
He used Kaiser medical records to get a phone number for one of the women, called her and persuaded her to come back to the clinic for additional testing. He then performed an ultrasound on her lower body, touching her pelvic area, Barton said.
Woolner typically targeted women he deemed attractive, Barton said. In at least one case, he spotted a woman in the waiting room who made an appointment to see a doctor, but Woolner persuaded her to see him instead.
While the woman was in his care, a worker at the front desk called her about her appointment and left a voicemail message. Woolner got the woman’s phone and deleted the message, the prosecutor said.
According to Beaverton police, an investigation began after a woman reported on Jan. 28, 2016, that Woolner inappropriately touched her and made sexual statements to her during a clinic visit two days earlier. She had already reported the nurse to Kaiser for inappropriate conduct.
Kaiser said Woolner was placed on leave the same day. He was allowed to return to work after an initial internal investigation found no evidence of misconduct, the hospital said. It is unclear when he returned.
Woolner abused at least one other woman while back at the clinic on Feb. 17 and Feb. 26, police said. On Feb. 29, he was placed on administrative leave a second time. That woman reported being abused by Woolner on March 6. He resigned while under investigation.
Woolner was arrested in April and released on bail later that month. He was out of custody until his guilty plea last week.
Barton said after court that this case demonstrates “a gap in Oregon law” because the charges available weren’t able to reflect the harm done to the victims. The sexual contact Woolner had with the women are considered misdemeanors under Oregon law, he said. The felonies in this case — computer crime and attempted kidnapping — were for deleting the voicemail and for luring a victim back to the clinic after she left.
“I struggled with not having the tools available to hold him accountable for what he did,” Barton said. “It just seemed like the harm he caused was so much greater than the charges I was able to file.
“I felt like the most I could do still wasn’t enough.”
