52yr-old paramedic jailed for sexual assault of accident victim inside ambulance

Mark Powell 

A former paramedic who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman in an ambulance in Connecticut was on Wednesday, sentenced to 3½ years in prison.

Fifty-two-year-old Mark Powell of North Haven told police he had made “a very bad judgment call” when he touched the woman’s breast and genitals. He claimed he did so in order to “apply pain stimuli to elicit a response or wake the female.”

The victim, who was 22 at the time of the assault, had needed treatment because she became intoxicated at a holiday party and fell into a mirror. Powell and the ambulance driver responded to the Hamden residence at about 3 a.m. on Christmas Day 2011.

 She reported that she had been awakened during the ride when she felt her breast being rubbed and her vagina touched. She said she remembered yelling at her assailant to stop.

She called Powell “a coward in a professional position he used to his sexual advantage.” She said he was “this monster sexually pleasing himself at my expense.”

The victim, who was accompanied to court by her mother, sister and boyfriend, came forward and read a detailed statement describing how Powell’s actions will affect her “for the rest of my life, every single day.”

Powell declined to make a statement in court. He just shook his head when Clifford gave him an opportunity to say anything.

His attorney, Norm Pattis, told Clifford, “He knows he made a mistake.”

On April 1, Powell pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault because he was willing to accept serving 3½ years rather than risk a much longer sentence if he were convicted at a trial. Powell pleaded under the Alford doctrine, in which a defendant does not admit guilt but concedes there is likely enough evidence to secure a conviction at trial. The plea results in a finding of guilt by the court.

 Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Doyle  said Powell had abused his position when the victim was “at her most vulnerable moment.”

Doyle noted the woman was under restraint in the vehicle and was “in and out of consciousness.”

Three days afterward, the woman called police and reported she had been awakened during the ride when she felt her breast being rubbed and her vagina touched. She said she remembered yelling at her assailant to stop.

The victim said she had been hesitant to contact police but that her mother persuaded her to do so.

Clifford noted that Powell’s statement to police “is what makes the case.” Powell initially told police he had not touched the woman, then said he had “accidentally” touched her, and then finally admitted what had happened.

 Culled from New Haven Register