A woman being treated at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital says a patient transporter walked into her room, brought her snacks, started massaging her calves, then climbed on top of her, pinned her arms down and put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream. The employee, identified as Boukhmis Baziz, has been arrested and charged with gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony under Ohio law.
According to NBC4 WCMH-TV, the woman told investigators she repeatedly told Baziz to stop touching her, but he allegedly responded, “Don't fight me. Relax. I'm not trying to hurt you,” before grabbing her arms and pinning her down. She said he then got on top of her, attempted to grope her body, and kissed her. When she tried to scream, he allegedly placed his hand over her mouth, and she eventually managed to push him away.
The station reports the woman was left with bruising on her right arm afterward. Per the police complaint report cited by the same outlet, the reported attack lasted about one minute. Hospital security footage reportedly showed Baziz entering the woman's room at 8:46 p.m. on August 16 and leaving 12 minutes later.
Hospital Response and Police Involvement
An OhioHealth spokesperson said the health system is aware of an alleged incident involving a transport associate within one of its facilities and confirmed that OhioHealth is cooperating with the Columbus Division of Police. The spokesperson also said Baziz is not currently working at the hospital, and the system has removed him from all OhioHealth facilities pending the outcome of the investigation.
That kind of system-wide ban while a criminal case unfolds is a standard risk-mitigation step for large hospital networks, according to legal guidance from Luftman, Heck & Associates. OhioHealth is a Columbus-based, non-profit health network operating 16 hospitals and more than 300 ambulatory sites across 55 Ohio counties, with roughly 35,000 physicians, associates and volunteers systemwide, per background compiled on Wikipedia. Riverside Methodist itself, founded in 1892, is a 1,059-bed teaching hospital and Level II trauma center — the largest single hospital in the OhioHealth system.
Charge Carries Mandatory Registration If Convicted
Baziz was issued a $75,000 bond in municipal court following his arrest. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2907.05, gross sexual imposition charged as a fourth-degree felony carries a potential penalty of six to 18 months in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, and mandatory Tier I sex offender registration for 15 years with annual verification, according to legal analysis from the Botnick Law Firm. The charge escalates to a third-degree felony, with far steeper penalties and lifetime registration exposure, only when a victim is under 13 or was chemically incapacitated — circumstances not present in this case, according to the same firm's analysis.
The alleged conduct instead centers on nonconsensual sexual contact carried out through physical restraint, which is how the statute is typically applied in cases like this one, per legal guidance published by the Stevenson Criminal Defense firm. Ohio law defines sexual contact under ORC § 2907.01 as touching an erogenous zone — including the thigh, buttocks, genitals or breast — with intent to arouse or gratify, according to Funkhouser Law.
Baziz is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing on August 27. Under Franklin County Municipal Court procedure, a felony preliminary hearing must occur within 10 days of arrest for a defendant held in jail, or within 15 days if released on bond, to determine whether probable cause exists to send the case to a county grand jury.
Open Questions Around Hospital Screening
Ohio law requires healthcare employers to run fingerprint-based criminal background checks through the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the FBI for any applicant providing direct patient care, under ORC § 109.572. It remains unclear from available reporting whether Baziz passed those required checks before he was hired, how long he had worked as a patient transporter, or whether OhioHealth has launched an internal root-cause review of the incident.
That last question carries added weight given industry-wide accreditation rules. The Joint Commission, the organization that accredits U.S. hospitals, revised its Sentinel Event Policy to explicitly classify nonconsensual sexual contact — including unwanted touching of breasts, buttocks or perineal areas — as a reportable sentinel event requiring internal investigation. The commission's 2024 sentinel event data ranked assault, sexual assault and homicide as the sixth-leading category of reported sentinel events nationally, with combined assault and homicide reports climbing 77% over a two-year span.
The case adds to a string of recent Central Ohio sexual assault prosecutions Hoodline has covered, including a separate OSU-area assault case also charged as fourth-degree gross sexual imposition, and an unrelated case involving a woman arraigned on sex battery allegations. The neighborhood around Riverside Methodist has also drawn recent Hoodline coverage of an early-morning shooting nearby and of major apartment development planned across the street from the hospital.
