Vile Abuse Alleged at Care Center

ATLANTA (CN) - A mother claims a nurse's aide raped her brain-damaged son, giving him genital warts and exposing him to HIV.

John Rives, who is HIV positive, entered a guilty plea in Fulton County Superior Court on Sept. 14, 2009 for sexual assault, sodomy and reckless conduct for anally raping and performing fellatio on the incapacitated adult, according to the complaint in DeKalb County Superior Court.

Restore Neurobehavioral Center, of Roswell, failed to conduct a background check on Rives, aka Jewell Holiday, according to the complaint.

She placed her son in the center after he suffered a permanent brain injury requiring lifelong care. Rives, a self-described "Drag Queen" and "Diva," had access to him and other patients, according to the complaint.

The mother claims that while Rives worked for the center, his state certification as a nursing assistant was revoked due to his physical abuse of a patient under his care while he worked for another health-care provider. He was accused of "abusing an elderly and vulnerable patient's rectum," according to the complaint.

She claims this information was documented in the State of Georgia Nurse Aide Registry and was available to the center and the public.

Rives' MySpace pages allegedly included video clips showing a child being sexually assaulted by a dog and various explicit images of Rives describing himself as "Diva" and "Drag Queen."

She claims although the center received complaints from other center employees about Rives' explicit comments which included his "bizarre and perverse interests of a sexually explicit nature," he did not lose his job.

The mother is represented by Steven R. Wisebram and Richard W. Hendrix with Finch McCranie and Edward Flynn with Flynn & Gottlieb.

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