Livonia – Recent indictments against a Metro Detroit nurse, 47-year-old Wilfredo Figueroa-Berrios, that allege he sexually assaulted multiple women while working at Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit made headlines across the state.
But the fifth indictment, alleging he sexually assaulted a 34-year-old female patient at a Livonia psychiatric facility in 2021, was quickly glossed over with a suspicious addendum by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office.
“While reviewing another incident which was denied, this December 23, 2021, incident was discovered. The case was sent by the Livonia Police Department in February 2022, but it was not discovered earlier because there were no documents in the WCPO new case management system. This was not the fault of the Livonia Police Department.”
That’s a very lawyerly way of saying “WE LOST IT.”
Hey, look. I can look past losing a warrant recommendation for a low-level criminal matter. But to lose a criminal referral for rape? That’s kind of a big deal.
Some outlets did indeed make minor mention of this major caveat, but here’s the problem. If Kym Worthy’s office hadn’t lost the original criminal referral, and had charged and convicted Figueroa-Berrios of the original alleged assault, she could have prevented four other women from being assaulted.
This nightmare scenario is even worse than you might realize. At some point after the alleged 2021 assault and subsequent mishandled criminal referral, Figueroa-Berrios left his job in Livonia and was hired at Sinai Grace in Detroit, giving him access to a even larger victim pool.
It seems very likely the Livonia facility was aware of the criminal investigation ongoing within their own walls and decided Figueroa-Berrios was too risky to keep around. One would assume being indicted for criminal sexual assault might hurt you in the within the medical community, but that indictment never came, and now we know why.
Figueroa-Berrios criminal behavior is monstrous, but those four additional sexual assaults are on the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office. I mean, this is literally the reason Kym Worthy’s office exists.
The official reason the criminal referral from Livonia was lost was due to a lack of documents in the Wayne County Digital Criminal Referral system. That sounds like bullshit to me.
Sources within the Livonia Police Department say this assault stemmed from an incident on December 23, 2021, which was aggressively investigated and referred to Kim Worthy’s office. Only a few weeks later Livonia PD requested a warrant for Figueroa-Berrios arrest.
Sources within and adjacent to the Wayne County juridical system who spoke on the condition of anonymity were stunned by these revelations but were sympathetic to Worthy’s office. According to multiple individuals in the know, The Wayne County Prosecutor’s office is severely understaffed with too few attorneys carrying huge caseloads. In addition, budgetary concerns are a decadeslong issue pulling the best and brightest employees being pulled away into the private sector.
One source was quick to note the alluring pull of the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office as a landing spot for strong Wayne County employees given its larger support staff and higher pay.
Another possible reason for such a shockingly incompetent gaff was provided by a former employee of the office: “Covid-19 restrictions caused a massive back-up in criminal referrals in Wayne County during that period of time while crime was spiking.”
Indeed, the entire government in Metro Detroit was stalled, and for residents of Wayne County, crime, disorder, and chaos was quite evident during the pandemic. Most municipal and county employees were either not working or working from home. The judicial system was backed up and adapting to Zoom, and local police were trying to keep control during an era of deep unrest.
By definition and design, governments are not very efficient, competent, or fast moving. That these agencies are trying to do their best within that framework is an assumption people make.
The pandemic is now a distant memory for most Michigan residents, and something people work hard to forget. But almost six years later, we are still seeing the reverberations as a possible cause for a female victim waiting years for justice and now four more women allegedly assaulted.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
