Hospice chaplain accused of sexually assaulting elderly woman in Sacramento County
Detectives were seeking other potential victims after they arrested a hospice chaplain who is accused of sexually assaulting an elderly woman living in a care facility in Sacramento County.
Arthur Earl Apgar, 71, of Placer County, was arrested on suspicion of four counts of sexual battery against a person who is seriously disabled or medically incapacitated, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.
Apgar was arrested Thursday and booked at the Sacramento County Jail, before he posted bail and was released a short time later, sheriff’s officials said. Apgar is scheduled to make his first appearance Monday in Sacramento Superior Court.
The victim, a woman in her 70s, lived at a care facility where Apgar worked as a hospice chaplain at the time of the sexual assault, said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a sheriff’s spokesman.
Gandhi said Apgar worked for a company that was contracted by care facilities, and the elderly woman was sexually assaulted within the past week. He said the security cameras at the facility captured the sexual assault.
Apgar, as a hospice chaplain, had access to multiple care facilities, and detectives were looking for any other potential victims, the sheriff’s spokesman said. Gandhi declined to release the name of the company Apgar worked for or the care facility where the alleged sexual assault occurred.
He said the care facility and the company have been cooperative with detectives, and the victim’s family has asked for as much privacy as possible.
Detectives asked anyone with relevant information for this sexual assault case or who has potentially been a victim or has family members or loved ones who had any contact with Apgar to call the sheriff’s Sexual and Elder Abuse Bureau at 916-874-5070 or Sacramento Valley Crime Stoppers at 916-443-4357.
This story was originally published August 9, 2024 at 8:15 AM.
