‘He’s dangerous’: nurse accused of raping vulnerable patient at Florida care center where he worked

A Florida licensed practical nurse who a neighbor described as “dangerous” is accused of allegedly sexually assaulting a patient at his workplace.

Police arrested William Ira Cease Jr., 63, at his Clearwater, Florida, home on Dec., 16 and booked him into the Pinellas County jail on a charge of sexually battering a “mentally defective person,” WTVT reported.

He was being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Three days earlier, police said, an employee at The Care Center of Pinellas Park, Cease’s workplace since April 2019, walked into the room of a 69-year-old female patient described as “vulnerable” and allegedly caught the nurse in a “state of undress” and in the “act of sexual assault.”

Cease fled the rehabilitation center after staff intervened and called police.

"I think he should be jailed and given some therapy or something,” Christina Chesser, a neighbor of the suspect, told WTVT, claiming he had threatened her before. “He’s dangerous.”

Police said there could be more victims.