Former nurse pleads guilty to committing lewd acts in front of patient

A former nurse accused of performing lewd acts in front of a patient nearly two years ago pleaded guilty to two felony charges on Tuesday.

Ricardo Mederos, 33, was arrested in September 2021 after a patient at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center told police that she woke up in her hospital room to a charge nurse groping her and committing a lewd act, according to his arrest report. The woman told police that a similar incident had happened with the same nurse days before.

Mederos pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two felony counts of open or gross lewdness in the presence of a vulnerable person, court records show.

According to Mederos’ arrest report, the woman told police that after she woke up to find Mederos touching her and exposing himself, she saved semen on a tissue for evidence. She said Mederos told her he would claim she was “blackmailing him for pain meds” if she told anyone.

“She stated that Ricardo then threatened her to not tell anyone, specifically ‘He had people that could make sure that I didn’t speak again,’ and ‘People on this floor will take care of it if you say anything,’” the report said.

In October 2021, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Joseph Sciscento ordered Mederos not to “practice nursing” as a condition of his bail, court records show. His defense attorney, Jess Marchese, said Tuesday that Mederos has been working in a different industry since then.

The guilty plea agreement does not include a set sentence that Mederos agreed to, but Marchese said he plans to ask for probation.

“We just plead to what we thought that the state could prove,” Marchese said.

A sentencing hearing in the case is scheduled for Nov. 7.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.