Fostoria man found competent after incident at Good Shepherd Home

A Fostoria man indicted by a Seneca County grand jury in connection to an incident at Good Shepherd Home in Fostoria has been found competent to stand trial. Noel G. Sims II, 39, was charged with aggravated burglary and kidnapping, first-degree felonies, and attempted rape, a second-degree felony. He is accused of trespassing in an occupied structure and inflicting or attempting to inflict physical harm on a person; restraining the person by force to engage in sexual activity with the person against the person's will; and attempting to engage in sexual conduct with the person when purposely compelling the person to submit by force or threat of force, according to his indictment. During a hearing in September, Seneca County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Kelbley ruled Sims was incompetent to stand trial and was not capable of assisting in his own defense. He ordered Sims to undergo treatment at Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital and approved involuntary administration of medication. During a hearing Wednesday afternoon, Kelbley found Sims competent to stand trial and is ordering Sims be evaluated for a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. According to Good Shepherd Home, 725 Columbus Ave., Sims entered Brethren Court Assisted Living without authorization, and an alarm alerted staff about the intrusion. Richard Palau, assistant Seneca County prosecutor, had said Sims was found naked on one of the patients. The 83-year-old woman was examined and released from Blanchard Valley Hospital after evaluation by a sexual assault nurse examiner, according to a Fostoria Police Department release. A lawsuit was filed in Seneca County Common Pleas Court against Good Shepherd Home on behalf of the resident. Around 6:30 a.m. June 2, Sims entered the premises' main entrance, according to the lawsuit. Sims was not stopped or questioned by staff members and was able to wander throughout the facility for several minutes without encountering a staff member or security guard, the lawsuit states. He found an unlocked door to an assisted living unit. The door had been left unlocked during a previous patient check, contrary to protocol and the woman's instructions, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accuses Sims of physically and sexually assaulting the woman and alleges the facility failed to properly provide security and surveillance to protect the woman. "Defendants owed Plaintiff a duty to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition," it states. The lawsuit states that, according to a finding by Ohio Department of Health, the administrator, Chris Widman, violated a standard by failing to "ensure a resident was free from physical and sexual assault by an outside intruder, and protected from further potential abuse, when she was left alone in the same room with the perpetrator while the incident was being reported to administrative staff…."