THORNTON, Colo. (KDVR) — Two adult sisters treated at the same hospital three months apart in 2020 said they were molested by the same male nurse’s aide. Now Adams County prosecutors have charged 49-year-old Francisco Javier Anaya-Lopez with one misdemeanor count of sexual contact without consent.

The sisters, 55-year-old Angela Becerra and 58-year-old Bernadette Becerra first reached out to Investigative Reporter Rob Low in September shortly after the Bernadette reported her incident at North Suburban Hospital to Thornton Police.

Bernadette was recovering from a gallbladder removal surgery when she said Anaya-Lopez entered her hospital room in the dark, perhaps thinking she was asleep.

“I felt something touching my butt, caressing my butt I turned real quick and I asked the gentleman, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ He said ‘I’m taking your blood pressure.’ ‘You’re taking my blood pressure on my butt?'” she recounted the Problem Solvers.

Bernadette’s screaming alerted nurses and Thornton police were called to the hospital.  Detectives soon confirmed the suspect was the same person who Angela had reported to police three months earlier when she had gone to North Suburban Hospital for knee surgery.

“I woke up to him with my breast in his hand. I said, ‘You [expletive].’ I said, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I’m taking your blood pressure.’ I said, ‘In the [expletive’ dark?'” she told FOX31.

That was June 16 and the 55-year-old woman demanded nurses call Thornton Police right away.  Her police report, obtained by the Problem Solvers, never mentions she was sexually touched, it only suggests that the suspect lifter her hospital gown to stare at her breasts. The police report reads, “Victim stated that Francisco did not touch her during the incident.”

She was furious when FOX31 shared the report her because she insisted she told the detective she had been touched inappropriately.

“The report said that I said he didn’t do nothing to me. I never said that he didn’t do nothing to me. That’s my story from the beginning and I’m sticking to it. This is what he did. He’s a predator and I want justice,” Angela said.

She’s unlikely to get justice though because Thornton Police never forwarded her case to the Adams County District Attorney’s Office. Anaya-Lopez denied any wrong-doing and there were no witnesses so detectives at the time determined they couldn’t sustain the allegation.

But when the older sister reported a similar incident at the same hospital with a male nurse’s aide who detectives soon realized was Anaya-Lopez again, the outcome was different.  It would take police three months to forward the case to prosecutors but in December police recommended charges.  The Adams County District Attorney filed a single count misdemeanor count on Jan. 7.

According to the arrest affidavit obtained by the Problem Solvers, Anaya-Lopez told detectives he “would be willing to take a lie detector test” to disapprove the allegations but he never did, leaving a voicemail for the detective three weeks later saying, he “didn’t want to talk to me about this incident anymore.”

“In my heart, I know there was more women,” said Bernadette. 

In a follow-up interview after the DA filed a single count, the older sister told the Problem Solvers she wonders if her case would’ve ever resulted in a charge if FOX31 hadn’t called and emailed police for months.

It was Adams County Sheriff Deputies who finally arrested Anaya-Lopez on Jan. 27, three weeks after the arrest warrant was issued. Anaya-Lopez has since paid a $750 bond and is due back in court in March.

Angela, the younger of the sisters, told FOX31 she is relieved that Anaya-Lopez was at least charged in her sister’s case. However, she said, she’s also frustrated because she said if the former nurse’s aide had been arrested or fired in her case, her older sister would’ve never been assaulted.

“Absolutely, absolutely. I mean a perpetrator is a perpetrator,” she said.

North Suburban Hospital fired Anaya-Lopez after the second incident but not because it had proof he committed a sex crime. Instead FOX31 has learned Anaya-Lopez violated hospital policy by entering a patient’s room in the dark without announcing himself. In a statement the hospital told FOX31:

“Francisco Javier Anaya-Lopez began working at North Suburban Medical Center in February 2018. He was immediately suspended when we were notified of a potential patient safety concern, and as part of our standard protocols, we alerted local authorities. Mr. Anaya-Lopez’s employment with North Suburban Medical Center was terminated on September 15, 2020. We will continue to assist local authorities in any way possible with their ongoing investigation.  We are deeply committed to providing the high-quality patient care in a safe environment.“

In an agreement with the state nursing board, Anaya-Lopez agreed to stop practicing as a nurse’s aide on Jan. 15, one week after his arrest warrant was issued. Technically, his license has not been suspended but he’s agreed to what the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies calls a “Non-Disciplinary Interim Cessation of Practice Agreement” while the Nursing Board investigates.