A nurse anesthetist faces a possible life sentence and up to $1.8 million in fines after being convicted Monday of molesting female patients after he drugged them.
Paul Patrick Serdula, 48, was found guilty in Cobb County of 34 charges, including sexual assault of a person in custody, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation and unlawful surveillance. Most of the 19 victims were unconscious at the time. Several were less than 16 years old.
Superior Court Judge Reuben Green reached a guilty verdict in the bench trial after spending about 30 minutes reviewing the evidence in chambers. Serdula, 48, decided to forgo a jury trial and let a judge decide the case to spare the victims further trauma, his lawyer said.
"He does not want to put these ladies through any more than they've been subjected to," defense attorney Jimmy Berry told the court.
Serdula was arrested Nov. 18, 2009, after a woman at a dentist office where he worked in Marietta found his cell phone affixed to the underside of the bathroom sink. The lens of the cell phone camera was trained upon the commode. Police searched the phone and found multiple videos and images from the bathroom. They also found footage of Serdula touching and sexually assaulting unconscious women at Cobb Hospital, where he also worked.
Serdula did not testify. Once a successful medical professional who leased a Corvette and a BMW and owned homes in Marietta and Panama City, Fla., Serdula's world crumbled following his arrest. While he was in jail last year, his wife divorced him and he lost his nursing license.
Berry said his client was "very remorseful."
"There's not a good explanation for why people commit these kinds of acts," Berry said.
Green did not set a date for the sentencing hearing but said he would wait about a month so victims can attend and the defense can subpoena witnesses to testify about Serdula's mental state.
Berry said he will appeal the verdict based upon a challenge to the search warrant and a motion to recuse the judge. The defense argued that Green, a former Cobb prosecutor, had the appearance of bias because of his ties to the District Attorney's Office.
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