A man accused of attacking medical staff at a Tustin vaccination site, and later groping a nurse while she was treating him, was charged Tuesday with battery and resisting arrest.
Thomas Apollo, 44, of Poway is facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly attacking workers at the Families Together of Orange County Community Health Center’s clinic on Dec. 30, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors described Apollo as acting erratically, accusing clinic workers of being “murderers” and responding to their requests for him to put on a mask or go back outside by using expletives.
Prosecutors allege he punched one medical assistant five times and a second medical assistant twice before bystanders were able to pin him down. He refused to follow commands from a Tustin officer, who had to use a taser to subdue him before handcuffing him, prosecutors added.
While being treated for “minor cuts and scrapes” at a hospital following his arrest, Apollo allegedly grabbed a nurse’s finger and bent it, then groped her breasts, prosecutors added.
“Instead of being treated with the same compassion and respect in which they treat their patients, these health care workers were punched in the face and physically assaulted for just trying to do their jobs,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement. “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated and we will hold this individual accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
In an earlier interview with a Southern California News Group reporter, the medical provider’s mobile operations manager, Parsia Jahanbani, described the man telling clinic workers that “I don’t have the virus and you are the ones making people sick.” It took five people, including two patients waiting for booster shots and a security guard, to subdue the man while police were summoned, Jahanbani said.
The violent incident left clinic workers shaken, Jahanbani said during the earlier interview, and resulted in additional security at the vaccination clinic. In a statement released after the attack, Families Together of Orange County CEO Alexander Rossel wrote that his team would “not tolerate any type of violence or threats against our staff, patients or volunteers.”
On Tuesday, the health care provider said, “While our staff are still recovering from the incident, we feel safer knowing that we are one step closer to justice being served.”
According to Orange County Sheriff’s Department records, Apollo was cited and released from jail on Dec. 31. He is scheduled to be arraigned during a court hearing on March 30.
If convicted as charged, he faces up to three years in Orange County jail.
Source: Orange County Register
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