The state Department of Human Services (Courtesy/State of Oregon)
This story was updated to reflect that Zakary Glover no longer works for the Oregon Department of Human Services.
A former state Department of Human Services worker was indicted Thursday on federal charges alleging sexual misconduct and kidnapping of a disabled woman in his care.
Zakary E. Glover, 28 of Lebanon, was indicted Thursday on charges of deprivation of rights and kidnapping, according to the indictment.
The federal indictment comes two months after Glover was indicted on charges in Marion County Circuit Court that alleged he kidnapped and raped the woman in November.
The woman Glover is accused of raping was a resident of DHS’ office of Developmental Disabilities Stabilization and Crisis Unit, where Glover worked as a direct support crisis specialist. The unit operates several 24-hour crisis residential programs that serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the federal indictment said.
It has group homes along the Interstate 5 corridor from Portland to Eugene and serves around 100 people, according to its website.
The woman had severe autism and cognitive deficits, and communicated mostly through pictures, videos and drawings. “(She) used some words, but was barely verbal,” the indictment said.
As part of his job, Glover would take the woman on outings in a secure van through fast food restaurant drive-thrus and drive her back to the unit, where she would eat.
The indictment said that on. Nov. 2, Glover was on an outing to Taco Bell with the woman when he drove down a dead end road toward an Aumsville cemetery.
Once he reached the dead end, Glover parked the van, opened the rear passenger door where the woman was sitting, lowered his shorts, grabbed her and “engaged in sexual misconduct,” according to the indictment. After around five minutes, he got back in the van and eventually drove the woman back to the unit.
Glover faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if he is convicted on the federal charges, according to a Friday statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon.
The FBI Portland Field Office is investigating the case with help from the Oregon State Police. Prosecutors in the case are Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin Bruce of the District of Oregon, and Special Litigation Counsel Fara Gold and Trial Attorney Daniel Grunert of the Criminal Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
In December, DHS spokesman Tom Mayhall Rastrelli said in an email that leaders at the unit learned on Nov. 12 about “an incident of alleged sexual assault” by Glover. He said unit officials immediately reported the incident to the agency’s Office of Training, Investigations and Safety and Oregon State Police.
Glover is no longer employed by DHS. He was employed at the state from Feb. 5, 2018 to Jan. 20, 2022, Mayhall Rastrelli said Friday afternoon.
A Marion County grand jury on Dec. 6 indicted Glover on charges of first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree kidnapping and first-degree official misconduct, according to the indictment.
Glover as of Friday afternoon was in custody at the Marion County Jail, where he was booked Nov. 30, the jail’s roster showed.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
