Former Palm Valley Post Acute patient took alleged rape victim to Goodyear PD after staff 'didn’t do anything'

GOODYEAR, Ariz. - There's new insight into the Arizona long-term care facility where a former nursing assistant was accused of raping and impregnating a patient.

We're hearing from the man who brought the alleged victim to the Goodyear Police Department after he said staff didn’t take the allegations seriously.

FOX 10 Investigator Justin Lum spoke to the witness mentioned in the Arizona Department of Health Services' (AZDHS) findings at Palm Valley Post Acute.

We want to warn you that some details are graphic.

The case against Bobby Lee Williams is in the hands of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. He faces potential charges of sexual assault and unlawful imprisonment.

A former patient of this facility says he watched the alleged victim get ignored by staff and says the delay in reporting to state agencies goes all the way up the chain of command.

‘You need to go to the police station’

AZDHS documents say the woman, who was allegedly raped by a nursing assistant, confided in another patient.

That patient is Salvatore Anastasi. He was admitted to Palm Valley Post Acute for health issues on Sept. 24 of last year.

"One day I was sitting on the swing out front, and she came out. She looked really frazzled. She looked real sluggish. She says, ‘Can I confide in you something?’ I’m like, ’Sure.’ And she goes, 'You promise me not to say anything to anybody?’ I said, ‘I won’t say anything.’ And she says she thinks she’s being raped by one of the employees that work there," Anastasi said.

We’ll call the alleged victim Jane Doe.

AZDHS findings say in late September 2023, Jane woke up to a staff member kissing her before sexually abusing her.

Investigators say the accused certified nursing assistant is Bobby Lee Williams. He surrendered his license to the state’s board of nursing last month.

The board’s investigator says Williams admitted to having sex with Jane, but that she came onto him.

According to AZDHS' statement of deficiencies, Jane claims Williams raped her 15–20 times during her stay.

"My room was right across the hall when I first got there, so I could see the door, and he would go into her room for long periods of time, like he’s going in there for a couple hours, and I wondered why," Anastasi said.

Documents say Jane tried speaking with the director of operations but was told to "follow the chain of command" despite another nursing assistant reporting the same allegation to Palm Valley’s director of nursing on Sept. 28.

Anastasi says he was there when Jane also confronted the director of nursing.

"She went next door to the director of nursing, and she mentioned something to that lady and the lady was like ‘you’re nothing but trouble,'" Anastasi said.

By Oct. 13, Jane had been discharged and Anastasi offered to help.

"I’m like, ‘Well you need to do something about that. You need to go to the police station,'" Anastasi told Jane.

Goodyear Police took the victim’s report, but it took another month for AZDHS to be notified by a "concerned staff member" on Nov. 17, reporting that Williams was still working at Palm Valley.

AZDHS says the facility self-reported the next day.

'You do not have any kind of relationship, any kind of anything, with your patients’

Williams was terminated two days later and Jane was found to be pregnant.

"She was distraught. She was just in shock. Last I talked to her she was still really having a hard time with it," Anastasi said.

He says this incident "100%" falls on Palm Valley.

Jane's lawyer tells FOX 10 that Palm Valley should be held accountable for "life-altering injuries," saying Williams was allowed to prey on Jane and that when she called for help, staff leadership "did nothing to stop the sexual violence from occurring."

"You had another employee, CNA, go to the director and go to whoever and report that this issue happened. That they heard it, that they seen it, or they knew he was having sex with somebody and they didn’t do anything about it. Regardless of what people say, if it was consensual or not, it doesn’t matter. You do not have any kind of relationship, any kind of anything, with your patients," Anastasi said.

We’ve reached out to Palm Valley Post Acute for comment on this report but have not gotten a response. We've also reached out to Bobby Lee Williams to see what he has to say, but he also did not respond.