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Calif. EMT gets three years for raping patient

By Rachanee Srisavasdi
The Orange County Register

MISSION VIEJO, Calif. — An emergency medical technician was sentenced Friday to three years in prison after admitting to raping an intoxicated female patient at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Orange County prosecutors said.

The 31-year-old victim was alone in a room about midnight Feb. 21 when Jesse Karim Pena, 32, of Winchester came in and assaulted her, prosecutors said. The victim reported the rape to hospital personnel, and DNA on the victim’s hospital gown linked Pena to the crime, prosecutors said.

Pena, who was an independent contractor EMT, was arrested June 25.

Pena worked three times in Mission Hospital in October and November 2008 and in February, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Police also have said he worked in hospitals in Riverside, San Diego and Orange County over the past four years.

If Pena had been convicted at trial, he faced up to eight years in prison. Pena also must register as a sex offender.

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