Community Police & Fire

Gig Harbor Police Blotter | Nurse practitioner formerly employed at local clinic charged with assault, rape

Pierce County prosecutors charged a nurse practitioner formerly employed at a Gig Harbor medical facility with counts of assault, rape, violation of a no-contact order and witness tampering earlier this month.

Prosecutors allege David B. Coots, 42, engaged in an intimate relationship with a patient, who became pregnant.

Forced medication

According to court documents, Coots forced medication to cause a miscarriage into the woman’s body. The documents allege Coots also gave the victim a drink in which he had dissolved the same medication, but she drank only a little of it.

Coots, then a nurse practitioner at MultiCare Gig Harbor, prescribed the medication to himself, investigators say. MultiCare told media outlets that Coots no longer works there.

“MultiCare has no higher priority than the safety of our patients,” MultiCare said in a statement to media outlets. “We take these allegations of inappropriate behavior by our provider very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation. The provider in question no longer works for MultiCare.”

Coots also is the subject of a “highest priority” investigation by the Washington State Board of Nursing. The nursing board expects its investigation to be complete in less than 30 days.

“The public’s safety is paramount, so it’s imperative we move quickly with this investigation,” nursing board executive director Alison Bradywood said in a news release.

Relationship with victim

Court documents indicate Coots began a relationship with the victim, a patient, in September 2023. She knew Coots was married, but the nurse practitioner told her he was getting divorced.

Tests she took in January indicated she was pregnant and intended to have the child.

Coots was supportive in conversations with the woman, documents indicate. But shortly after learning she was pregnant, the nurse practitioner gave her a cup of coffee, then proceeded to repeatedly ask her if she was drinking it and if it tasted funny.

Later, during an intimate encounter with the victim, Coots allegedly inserted pills inside her body. She didn’t know about it until one of the pills fell out while she was using the bathroom.

Other charges

Court documents indicate that the victim obtained a restraining order against Coots, which he violated by attempting to contact her. Prosecutors also allege that Coots and his wife both offered to pay the woman if she didn’t report the crimes or cooperate with law enforcement.

Deputies arrested Coots on March 11. He posted bond March 13 and was released from the Pierce County Jail. A jury trial is tentatively scheduled to begin May 2.

Suspect, whom investigators believed jumped from Narrows Bridge, lived in California for years

A Kitsap County criminal suspect, believed to have leapt from the Narrows Bridge to his death in 2009, in fact lived on as a maintenance man at a Southern California apartment complex.

According to the Kitsap Sun and other media reports, neighbors found Christian Robert Basham dead inside his Los Angeles apartment on Feb. 26. The neighbors knew him as Mark Clemens.

But the Los Angeles County medical examiner identified him as Basham, who had been charged with a count of child rape in Kitsap County in September 2008. After being charged with the crime, Basham posted bond and then disappeared.

A witness reported seeing Basham jump off the Narrows Bridge in March 2009. Investigators found a car registered to Basham parked nearby.

It’s not clear if he actually jumped from the bridge and survived, or if the whole incident was staged. But apparently he was living in California the whole time.

The Kitsap Sun reported that the L.A. County medical examiner’s office deferred its investigation into Basham’s cause of death. It could take up to three months to determine how he died.