A jury in Otsego County, New York, convicted Tasheem Hoyt-Capirci, 30, of raping a patient he was assigned to watch overnight in the inpatient psychiatric unit at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown. Jurors deliberated for roughly 15 minutes after a three-day trial before returning the guilty verdict on Oct. 21, 2026.
What the evidence showed
Hoyt-Capirci, of Richmondville, worked as a nurse’s aide on the overnight shift of Bassett’s locked inpatient psychiatric unit — a support role that works alongside licensed nurses but does not itself require a nursing license. The Otsego County District Attorney’s Office says Hoyt-Capirci raped a patient in his care on Sept. 2, 2025, a patient who, because of her psychiatric hospitalization, was legally unable to consent. A New York State Police forensic scientist testified that DNA recovered from the victim matched Hoyt-Capirci’s, according to the DA’s office.
Eight witnesses testified over the three-day trial before the jury returned its verdict on a single count of third-degree rape under New York law, which covers sexual intercourse with someone incapable of consent due to a mental disability or incapacitation — language prosecutors applied here because of the patient’s psychiatric hospitalization at the time of the assault.
A joint investigation
The case was investigated jointly by the Cooperstown Village Police Department, the Otsego County Sheriff’s Office, the Otsego County District Attorney’s Office, the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs, and Bassett Healthcare Network’s own security and legal affairs staff. The Justice Center is the state agency that investigates allegations of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities and psychiatric conditions inside licensed care facilities — a separate track from the criminal case that can also result in a worker losing eligibility for any direct-care role in New York, regardless of the criminal outcome.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 21, 2026. Hoyt-Capirci faces up to four years in state prison on the conviction and will be required to register as a sex offender regardless of the exact term the judge imposes at sentencing.
I’ve worked psych units, and overnight shifts on a locked floor run on a kind of trust that never shows up on a staffing grid: trust that a patient who can’t call for help, can’t consent, and can’t fight back is still safe with whoever’s assigned to her room. An aide carries that same trust an RN does, and this case is a hard reminder that background checks and direct supervision matter just as much for unlicensed support staff as they do for licensed nurses — especially on the overnight shift, when a unit is thinnest, patients are most isolated, and one person alone with a vulnerable patient is exactly the situation every facility policy is supposed to prevent.
What’s next
Bassett Medical Center, part of the Bassett Healthcare Network based in Cooperstown, is the system’s flagship hospital and serves a largely rural stretch of upstate New York, including the inpatient psychiatric unit where the assault occurred. Hoyt-Capirci remains in custody ahead of his December sentencing, and it is not yet known whether he will appeal the conviction.