Nurse’s assistant convicted of sexual assault in O.C.

A male nurse’s assistant has been convicted of sexually assaulting three women recovering from surgery while pretending to give them routine care, authorities said today.

Alberto Miguel Otiniano, 54, of Westminster, was working at West Anaheim Medical Center on May 27, 2006, when he claimed to be giving the patients routine personal hygiene care, such as changing bed linens and helping them freshen up. Instead, authorities said, Otiniano took off their hospital gowns, touched one woman’s vagina, “digitally penetrated” another, and rubbed the inner thigh of a third woman.

The women reported the assaults to other hospital staff, who contacted police.

Otiniano was also found guilty of molesting a young female relative and her friend between 2000 and 2006.

On Thursday, an Orange County jury found Otiniano guilty of sexual penetration by foreign object of an unconscious victim, three counts of sexual battery on an institutionalized victim, continuous sexual abuse, and three counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14.

Otiniano faces a maximum sentence of 70 years to life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

my-thuan.tran@latimes.com