Former mental health tech accused of misconduct with juvenile patient

UPDATE: Case dismissed against mental health tech accused of inappropriately touching juvenile

A man described in an arrest report as a mental health technician at Desert Winds Hospital has been arrested after authorities said he inappropriately touched a juvenile patient.

Donovan Dykes, 28, of Las Vegas, faces charges of lewdness in the presence of a child, a felony, and abuse or neglect of a child mental health patient, a misdemeanor. He was arrested on June 17 and released after posting bail.

The incident allegedly occurred on Feb. 14.

A man who said he is a spokesperson for the hospital said Dykes was “immediately terminated” and that the hospital cooperated with the investigation, but Dykes’ arrest report is critical of the hospital’s response.

On Feb. 14, Dykes approached the victim and “grabbed her breast with his bare hand over her clothing,” the report said the victim told police. She said Dykes had a reputation among patients for engaging in inappropriate behavior, like watching patients shower, according to the report.

The highly redacted report also states that the victim, whose age is not disclosed, had “a male birth name” and had “recently begun identifying as a female and transitioned” to another name. “This is reflected on (the victim’s) State issued Nevada Driver’s License,” the report states.

The report said the Metropolitan Police Department learned about the alleged incident on Feb. 27. It is not clear who reported it to police.

A hospital incident report said disciplinary action was recommended, but that the severity of the incident was “inconsequential,” the arrest report said.

The arrest report also said that it was difficult to get the hospital to comply with search warrants and that it was unclear if “missing items exist or they are being withheld.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal requested comment from the hospital and from Eric Sonderling, who is listed in the arrest report as the hospital’s general counsel. Two people who said they spoke for the hospital responded to the requests.

Alex Bejar, a manager for hospital management company CBM Management, said there are two entities, SunArch, a pediatric residential facility, and the hospital. He said that Dykes may have been a Desert Winds employee before a recent change of ownership, but that he was not employed on Feb. 14. He predicted that SunArch would say the alleged incident happened at their facility. And he said that any discussions about warrants would have been with SunArch, not Desert Winds.

The arrest report makes no such distinction.

Don Silver, who said he was a spokesperson for SunArch, Desert Winds and Millenium Management, confirmed the incident occurred at SunArch, but referred to Dykes as a “Desert Winds mental health tech.”

Silver said Dykes was “immediately terminated” on Feb. 14 because of the allegations, although the arrest report said he was still in the building the next day.

“We took it very seriously,” Silver said, adding that the hospital provided Dykes’ personnel file and relevant surveillance footage to authorities.

He said the facility self-reported the alleged incident to the Nevada Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance and Child Protective Services.

Metro initially released a heavily redacted arrest report that concealed the name and address of the hospital as well as the comment that critiqued its response to warrants. Metro said those redactions were justified because the information pertained to a victim of a sexual offense.

Las Vegas Justice Court provided a copy of the report that did not include those redactions.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.