By Mark Puente
Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND — A veteran EMS paramedic was arrested Monday after being accused of fondling two patients in an ambulance, police said.
No charges have been filed against Glenn Burks, 44, but police expect to present the case to prosecutors this week.
He was being held Monday in the Cleveland City Jail.
Police took swab samples from inside Burks’ cheek to try to match him to DNA samples taken from two male patients who accused Banks of rape and gross sexual imposition, according to a search warrant in the case.
Burks was suspended without pay after being arrested, Safety Director Martin Flask said. Stephen Palek, head of the Emergency Medical Services union, urged people not to pass judgment until the case works its way through the courts.
Investigators believe Burks sexually assaulted two patients treated by EMS.
A 34-year-old man living at a residential drug treatment center in Tremont was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center on Oct. 1. The man accused Burks of fondling his genitals for several minutes while he was strapped to a stretcher, according to a police report.
“Do you want me to take my gloves off?” Burks asked the man, according to the report.
In May, a 48-year-old homeless man accused Burks of fondling and performing oral sex on him in an ambulance. Burks told investigators that he gave the man a full-body exam but did not touch the man inappropriately, according to a police report.
Burks’ partner told police she had constant visual contact on the man and observed nothing unusual but witnessed the man fondling himself in the hospital. A nurse then gave investigators a folded blanket containing what she believed to be DNA evidence, the report indicates.
The blanket was sent to the state crime lab for testing. The crime lab’s recently returned report indicates sperm and saliva were on the blanket, according to the search warrant.
Burks’ family declined to comment.