By Trish Mehaffey

Seven former nurses and two residential treatment workers of the Independence Mental Health Institute are suing nine supervisors of the facility over ongoing assaults resulting in serious injuries, including sexual assaults, by the patients, as well as warnings and citations over safety violations.

The supervisors knew of the ongoing violence, received repeated complaints from the employees, warnings and citations but “chose not to act” and correct the “known dangers,” a gross negligence lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Buchanan County District Court, asserts.

The institute provides care and treatment of patients with severe mental illness, violent behavior histories and sexually aggressive tendencies, including behaviorally complex youth, according to the petition.

There have been published articles since 2018 of the incidents involving nurses and residential treatment workers being assaulted and documented complaints but nothing has been done, the suit states.

“Nurses should be caregivers, not gladiators” said Bobby Rehkemper, a West Des Moines lawyer for the nurses and workers. They are being put in a situation where they are being battered, bloody and bruised because they are told to get back in there because this is what they signed up for.”

Nurses, in the suit said that’s what a supervisor told them when they reported the incident, filed a complaint or asked for more help because of safety.

Darin Luneckas, a Cedar Rapids lawyer, representing the employees, said the nurses and treatment workers received only basic escalation techniques and holds.

“This isn’t an accident,” Luneckas said. “It’s a decision not to effectively protect these employees who are doing one of the hardest jobs in the medical field.”

Rehkemper said there were dozens and dozens of notices given to supervisors; 479 calls were made to the sheriff’s office for assaults and other incidents at the facility from January 2023 to June 2026; and repeated complaints about radios not working, which were provided for safety purposes.

There also were no surveillance cameras in the facility, according to the petition.

One of the nurses, Olivia Berger, a named plaintiff in this lawsuit, said in April 2025 that she was one of the seven filing gross negligence claims last year with the State Appeal Board, which is the initial step state workers must take before filing a lawsuit.

Berger resigned in August 2023 after she was repeatedly physically assaulted — and in one incident sexually assaulted — in 2023 by some of the most violent patients in the hospital. She suffered multiple injuries, including a traumatic brain injury and concussion.

Once a claim is filed with the appeals board, the state has six months to investigate the claims and take action to resolve it. If no action is taken, the claimant has the right to file a lawsuit, which is what the nine plaintiffs did.

Once the state does respond, Rehkemper said, it will be substituted as the defendant in the petition and be the responsible and liable party in the civil action.

Officials at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services didn’t immediately respond to an email asking for comment Wednesday.

According to the petition, the lengthy pattern of assaults started in 2018. There were multiple residential treatment workers assaulted by patients in or around June 2018. The employees suffered head injuries, cervical sprains, TMJ pain and other injuries.

In 2019, an Iowa Occupational and Safety and Health Administration found 10 serious violations at the IMHI. The violations were “systemic safety failures” and each of the named defendants in the petition all employed at that time had knowledge of the issues. The state had to pay over $72,000 in penalties, according to the petition.

The violations included failure to provide:

- An adequate emergency response to the violent attacks.

- Reliable communication systems during the assaults.

- Access to contact emergency responders without a supervisor’s permission.

- Training on protective equipment used during violent incidents.

- Assessments of workplace violence hazards.

After an article published in October 2019, which featured employees who provided their accounts of being assaulted by patients to bring awareness of unsafe working conditions, one worker was fired in a “retaliatory” response by the administration to the article, the petition asserts.

In November 2022, Berger sent an email to her supervisor regarding safety concerns stemming from assaults on staff members. No substantial measures were taken by any of the named defendants to remedy the situation.

Also in 2022, additional OSHA complaints warned that staff in a ward with children and adolescent patients were being exposed to violent patients without proper procedures, training or protection, the suit asserts.

Escalation of violent incidents

In May 2023, Cade Iverson, who is a named defendant, took over leadership as the institutional superintendent and the pattern of patient assaults on staff “escalated dramatically in frequency, severity and predictability,” the suit asserts.

Incidents involving plaintiffs:

- July 15, 2023, two serious assaults upon Berger. In one, she was charged by a patient, grabbed by her sweater and “swung around by her neck,” causing bruising to her legs, neck and arms. The radios weren’t working, which prevented adequate emergency response.

- July 26, Renee Recker-Smith, a plaintiff, was punched in the face by a patient while attempting to place a protective helmet on the patient to prevent self-injury, the lawsuit asserts.

- Aug. 12, Berger was sexually assaulted by a patient with a history of sexually aggressive behavior.

- Aug. 17, another worker — not part of this suit — was punched in the face by a patient, which resulted in a broken nose and black eye. A nurse supervisor told worker the this is what she “signed up for,” which showed the administration’s “callous disregard for employee safety.”

- Sept. 4, 2023, Brenda Marrero suffered severe injuries to her right knee and foot, impacting her mobility from an assault. She was subsequently placed on leave and later fired.

- October 2023, Lora Smith was repeatedly assaulted by patients. In one incident, she was head-butted by a patient who then smashed her head into a cement wall. During a 2024 attack, a patient struck her in the abdomen, knowing she was pregnant and she lost her unborn baby a few days later.

- In August 2024, Angela Timmerman was beaten and stomped by an adolescent patient who ripped out a large clump of her hair before repeatedly foot-stomping her head. She suffered a spinal cord injury, neck pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic migraines.

There are numerous additional examples of physical assaults resulting injuries against the employees named in the lawsuit and employees who didn’t join the lawsuit.