Investigators say the assault occurred Monday -- the same day federal regulators issued a report citing serious violations at the state mental hospital in Goldsboro for an earlier patient assault and the neglect of a patient who died. Records show that three other Cherry employees have been arrested in recent months on charges of assaulting patients.

On Friday, Taniko Dominique Upton and William Kenneth Johnson, both health-care technicians, were charged with simple assault on a handicapped person, a misdemeanor.

Upton, 33, is accused of hitting a male patient in the abdomen, knocking him to the floor. Upton then kicked and punched the patient in the head and side, according to the arrest warrant.

Johnson, 52, is accused of holding the victim during the initial assault, and then joined Johnson in beating the patient once he was on the floor, according to a warrant.

Both were taken to the Wayne County Jail and later released after posting $5,000 cash bonds.

Upton said Friday he was wrongly accused and pointed out that a psychiatrist who hit a patient in April, Dr. Ralph Berg, was never charged with a crime.

"I never touched him and they still sent me downtown," Upton said. "Tell me why Dr. Berg didn't go downtown."

Efforts to reach Johnson were unsuccessful.

Cherry Hospital director Jack St. Clair was unavailable for an interview Friday about the incident, according to Tom Lawrence, the chief spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

No other DHHS official would comment on the criminal cases, either, Lawrence said.

Three more arrests

Under a public information request, the department also released records Friday for three other Cherry employees arrested in recent months.

Vincent Morton, 45, was charged in March with misdemeanor assault after police say he placed his hands around a patient's neck "in a choking manner" and then hit the patient in the head.

Morton said he was protecting himself after the patient attacked from behind. He said the district attorney agreed to drop the charge, though he was still fired.

"It was bogus," said Morton, who worked at Cherry five years. "I was the one attacked."

Richard John Percival II, 31, was arrested in May and charged with misdemeanor assault after he struck a patient in the head and body, according to a criminal summons. That charge was later dropped when the patient, who by then had been released from the hospital, refused to return to Wayne County to testify against his alleged attacker.

"They almost killed me last time I was there," the patient told the police officer, according to a report. "I'm not coming back."

Percival said Friday night that the patient assaulted him, but he never hit the patient back. He also was fired.

"It's a mental hospital," Percival said. "Sometimes it gets violent. Whatever the patient dishes out, they expect us to take it and not do anything."

Tonivia Bryant, 30, was charged with misdemeanor assault on a handicapped person in May after investigators said she hit a woman repeatedly in the face and head. According to a police report, the patient assaulted Bryant and was restrained. Once the woman was strapped down, the health-care technician attacked the patient, striking her 11 times.

Bryant then had to be physically restrained by other employees to stop the assault, which was recorded by a hospital security camera, according to a police report. Efforts to reach her failed.

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