After a Brooklyn patient went public with allegations of sexual abuse inside Brookdale Hospital, a male nurse has been arrested and charged with sex crimes.
According to a complaint filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, Kuriakose Poulose, a nurse who was working the overnight shift on December 5, 2025, entered a female patient’s hospital room and began to rub her private parts without her consent. The patient reported the alleged sex crime to police the following morning, but it wasn’t until this month that Poulose was arrested and charged with sexual abuse, forcible touching, and harassment.
The arrest came one week after the patient told her story in an exclusive interview with the NBC New York I-Team.
“Things tend to move slowly, but we’re thankful that at this point the appropriate authorities have taken notice of this very serious incident,” said Nicholas Liakas, the patient’s attorney. “Obviously we’ll be looking into it further to see if there are other victims.”
Boris Nektalov, the defense attorney representing Poulose said his client voluntarily surrendered to police and pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are misdemeanors.
“He strongly denies these allegations and is presumed innocent,” Nektalov said. “We will not try this case in the media, especially where there is a pending criminal case as well as a pending civil lawsuit seeking monetary damages and other civil relief based on allegations that have not been proven in any court.”
The patient, who asked that her name be withheld due to the sensitivity of the allegations, has filed a lawsuit against One Brooklyn Health, the owner of Brookdale Hospital. The suit alleges the hospital put patients at risk by hiring Poulose, in part because he had been accused of improperly touching women in the past.
According to a disciplinary order issued by the New Jersey Board of Nursing, Poulose engaged in professional misconduct in 2020 and 2021, when he failed to disclose allegations from two female patients and a female co-worker who said he groped them. Poulose denied the allegations, but he was ordered to attend a monitoring program because state policy requires nurses to report incidents involving “boundary violations.”
The lawsuit filed by the Brooklyn patient accuses hospital administrators of neglecting their duty to conduct “adequate background and licensing checks” that would have revealed red flags in his record.
“It’s just disgusting. I don’t know why they didn’t take the time to do the proper things before they hired this person,” the patient told the I-Team.
Citing the criminal investigation, One Brooklyn Health has declined to discuss its background check procedures or the patient’s claims of sexual abuse. Brookdale Hospital has also declined to say whether Kuriakose Poulose remains employed by the facility.
According to licensing records maintained by the New York State Office of the Professions, Poulose remained eligible to work as a registered nurse in New York as of July 8 – more than a week after he was arrested.
In response to questions from the I-Team last month, the New York State Office of the Professions, which regulates nursing, said all criminal convictions are deemed “professional misconduct” by state regulators. But the office did not specify whether pending criminal cases – those still awaiting trial – can result in temporary suspensions of nursing licenses.
“Under Education Law, the Department cannot comment on a specific case,” wrote a spokesperson. “In any case where there is sufficient evidence of professional misconduct, the Department will pursue disciplinary action to the extent possible in accordance with Education Law.”
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