A married Washington nurse is accused of forcing abortion pills inside his pregnant girlfriend after he allegedly groomed when he met her as a patient.
David Benjamin Coots, 49, was arrested on March 11 and charged with assault, rape and witness tampering.
The nurse, who is married with five children, was employed at the MultiCare Gig Harbor Medical Park in Gig Harbor, Washington. His staff page has been removed.
Coots’ wife Melissa is also accused of witness tampering after she and Coots allegedly turned up at the woman’s home and offered her money in exchange for not pressing charges and seeking medical treatment as ‘they didn’t want their lives ruined’, charging documents stated.
David Benjamin Coots, 49, is charged with assault, rape and witness tampering after he allegedly forced abortion pills inside his pregnant girlfriend
The nurse at Gig Harbor Medical Park in Gig Harbor, Washington (pictured) is accused of assault, rape and witness tampering, after he also allegedly offered the woman money to not go to the police or seek medical treatment
Coots allegedly met the woman, who has not been identified, around a year ago, when he was her primary-care provider during a time she says she was vulnerable.
Charging documents claim that he then manipulated ways to keep seeing the patient, until he obtained her phone number and asked her on a date.
They then began a romantic relationship and she fell pregnant after around a year of the two seeing each other. Coots is married and has five children, but the patient claimed he told her he was getting a divorce.
When confronted with the news that she was pregnant, prosecutors say that Coots pretended to be supportive, at one point allegedly asking her ‘what type of stroller they should get.’
‘He acted extremely supportive and thrilled for our future. I am shocked and disturbed by the planning and deception that went into his attack on me and our unborn child,’ the woman wrote in a statement to the court.
With the woman planning to keep the baby, he allegedly plotted to force a miscarriage by slipping abortion pills inside her while they had sex.
On January 27, the woman said she and Coots had consensual sex, but during intercourse he is accused of inserting the pills inside her, according to the News Tribune.
She felt he was then acting strangely afterwards and said he ordered her to stay home that night, according to the reported charging documents.
Later that day, she said she noticed a pill fall out of her vagina, and soon discovered three more pills and some foil inside her.
Coots (seen in court on Wednesday) allegedly pretended to be supportive of the pregnancy before carrying out his accused plot
After texting Coots about the discovery, he allegedly admitted they were the miscarriage pills Misoprostol/Cytotec, and added that he prescribed the pills to himself.
Coots is accused of trying to convince the woman not to seek medical treatment, but she did so that day and had a rape kit administered.
Hospital staff subsequently found more medication inside her, and she told investigators that she suffered abnormal bleeding and stomach pain for several days after.
A pregnancy test later came back negative, and doctors reportedly told her the bleeding was a possible miscarriage.
Court documents also allege an odd encounter the day before the incident, as Coots made her a coffee, but made numerous comments about the fact that she wasn’t drinking it.
He then made it a ‘big deal’ when she spilled the coffee. After the alleged pill forcing incident, she asked him if he spiked the coffee, to which Coots allegedly just laughed and asked her if it tasted funny.
Coots allegedly sent her $2,000 after the incident, which she sent back. On January 31, four days after, he is accused of visiting her home and asking how much money it would take for her not to report him to the police.
In response, she said she wanted to hold him accountable for his actions.
A day later, Melissa Coots – who has not been arrested – allegedly texted the woman and said she wanted to talk and asked for her hospital report.
Melissa then allegedly asked how much it would cost for her not to go to the cops, and told her she had been to her home several times before – sparking fear in the woman as she didn’t know Coots’ wife knew where she lived.
This led her to take her daughter, 7, to temporarily stay in a hotel.
Detectives reportedly found a cut key and a receipt from March 10 for a lock on the woman’s home, prosecutors claimed.
Coots has been released on a $500,000 bail – despite the woman begging courts to keep him in custody as she was afraid he would find her
Coots was reportedly released on a $500,000 bail – despite the woman begging courts to keep him in custody as she was afraid he would find her, and he had allegedly sent her a recent letter saying that he wanted to try for another baby.
‘I’m just so afraid of how increasingly desperate he has become to have me agree to meet him in person and fear that he will stop at nothing to make that happen,’ she said in a statement to the court.
‘When he brought gifts for me and my daughter it scared her so much she cried and thought he was going to pop out of the boxes to get us.’
On Wednesday, a Pierce County judge denied a request from prosecutors to increase the bail, and he is free on the charges. Coots has pleaded not guilty.