Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Chloroform Fetish' Doctor Sexually Abused Nanny

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law & Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A doctor with a so-called chloroform fetish admits to drugging his nanny so he could sexually abuse her. I have the disturbing details of the case out of New York and how long this doctor will spend behind bars. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. From the outside looking in, Paul Giacopelli

Starting point is 00:00:30 seems like a normal guy. He had a wife and twin daughters with special needs, and he was a doctor working as an anesthesiologist. But Giacopelli was not to be trusted, according to investigators and the prosecutor in Putnam County, New York, which is about 54 miles outside of New York City. Giacopelli has admitted to using drugs from the hospital where he worked, specifically Cevoflurane, to drug his nanny so he could sexually abuse her as she slept in his home to care for his children. Giacopelli had tried to get the charges thrown out, but the judge denied the motion and the decision denying that motion included a lot of information about the case. The complainant

Starting point is 00:01:12 testified that she worked as a nanny for defendant from September 2020 to December 2023, providing residential child care for defendant's children who have special needs. She stated that her work hours in that role were Monday to Friday mornings and about one or two overnight shifts when she would sleep over at defendant's residence. The woman testified that she worked these overnight shifts when Giacopelli was on call at the hospital where he worked as an anesthesiologist. The complainant recounted four separate nights in late 2023. She described that she worked overnight shifts at defendant's residence babysitting the children, and after she fell asleep, she woke up to a rag being held over her face, smelled chemicals, and then she

Starting point is 00:01:57 blacked out about two or three seconds later. Of course, the woman became very suspicious. Who wouldn't after having a rag being placed over your face and then blacking out? On December 29th of last year, the records say the nanny testified that she brought an Arlo security camera to Gia Capelli's house with her and set it up behind the humidifier of a turtle tank. The nanny testified that she went to sleep and then awoke briefly to a rag over her face and then again smelled the chemicals and blacked out. The court filings said the nanny viewed the contents of the video camera at approximately 2 a.m. on the morning of December 30th, 2023. The Arlo security camera set up by the complainant recorded nine clips. Those clips showed Gia Capelli assaulting the nanny,

Starting point is 00:02:46 who left the home and then went to the hospital. Gia Capelli ultimately confessed to drugging the nanny with that drug, sevoflurane, that he brought home from work, telling a detective that she was the, quote, easiest target because she was a heavy sleeper. Court documents say Gia Capelli admitted to fondling the woman's breasts and then assaulting her in other ways with his hands. Giacopelli pleaded guilty to two felonies, sexual abuse in the first degree and assault in the second degree. The district attorney, Robert Tendi, said in a statement, I'm mostly proud of the victim's courage in going through this process, which led to the

Starting point is 00:03:23 defendant's arrest and conviction. Giacopelli will be sentenced in November. As part of the victim's courage in going through this process, which led to the defendant's arrest and conviction. Giacopelli will be sentenced in November. As part of the plea agreement, he will serve four years in prison, and then he'll be on probation for 10 years after that, and he will have to register as a sex offender. Paul Giacopelli was a doctor. He's somebody that a person would feel like they could trust, But this case just goes to show you that you can't be too careful about the people that you meet, no matter their profession. Truthfinder.com is a website that can help you research the people you meet each day. Truthfinder will also show you the addresses of sex offenders who live in your neighborhood. So it's really helpful. If you'd like to try Truthfinder, you can get 50% off of confidential background reports.

Starting point is 00:04:05 Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix. Log on and start accessing information about almost anyone. I want to bring in Serena Townsend. She's a former sex crimes prosecutor. Serena, just when you think you've heard it all, you hear about something like this. A doctor admitting to bringing home anesthesia from the hospital and drugging his nanny. It's the stuff of nightmares, honestly. It's something that you couldn't even think up.

Starting point is 00:04:36 It would only be something you thought you could see in movies and not in reality. The thing that is so stunning to me about this is the fact that it's so bold. I mean, you're taking advantage of somebody that you've brought into your home, who's trusted you and you've trusted to care for your children. And she's in this incredibly vulnerable position. She's sleeping in the overnight hours. and you're taking, I mean, she could have been injured, first of all, but you're taking a rag and putting drugs on it and using your profession to drug her so you can sexually abuse her. It's so creepy and so wrong on so many different levels. It is. It's horrifying. First of all, it's terrifying to think that this is a doctor who's, I think, about 60 years old at this point to acknowledge the fact that if he's this brazen

Starting point is 00:05:45 and he's using the access to the drugs that he has and his powerful position and, you know, the ability for him to house this woman in his home, all of those things he's taking advantage of. He's supposed to be in the healthcare business. He's supposed to take care of people, help them heal. And here he is using all of those things, his intelligence, the drug availability, his knowledge of how those drugs work, and all of that to sexually abuse this woman and God knows how many others. The thing that concerns me too, and I would assume, this has been out in the news, that these charges came about earlier this year. So I would assume if there were other accusers out there, other victims, that we may have heard

Starting point is 00:06:32 about them by now because they would have investigated those claims and, you know, filed charges. But we haven't heard about that. So when you hear about this, though, do you think maybe he didn't victimize patients in the hospital, but maybe took advantage of the nanny because she was in such a vulnerable spot in his home? Because he could have potentially sexually abused patients at a hospital where he worked. I think, yes, for sure. This is a very unique case, a very unique situation because of the fact that he's introducing chloroform into this equation. It means that the people or the person, at least we know of at this point, that he abused was unconscious and he made them unconscious with the chloroform. So for me, what's frightening is

Starting point is 00:07:26 we don't know if the patients know that they were abused, right? Because a lot of times when you have a sexual predator or a rapist or anything like that, they don't use chloroform. They don't necessarily put their victims to sleep in such a deep sleep that they wouldn't even be able to feel something at the time of the assault. And they probably wouldn't have much of a memory of it. In fact, it sounds like she only had memory of the initial encounter of the rag, you know, being introduced to her face, her mouth, and that feeling of falling asleep. So I mean, in my opinion, these patients, you know, who were in a hospital setting, they may have already expected to have fallen asleep, or he could have used,

Starting point is 00:08:11 you know, a certain other tool to put them to sleep, without them knowing that while they were asleep, he was abusing them. It's a very different situation. You know, a nanny is going to be startled by being put to sleep, but a patient is not, right? They're expecting to be put asleep. So for me, the fact that we haven't heard from other patients doesn't necessarily convince me that he hasn't done this to other people. And if I were the investigator, I would not wait for people to outcry and come to me. I would look at, you know, to the extent that you can, I know there's HIPAA issues here, but to the extent that you can, I would look at the patients and see who he treated and see if I could open up an investigation regardless of whether people came forward.

Starting point is 00:08:56 I guess the only saving grace might be that in a hospital setting, you would be with other people in, say, an operating room, there would be other people present. So maybe you wouldn't be able to do something like this. One would hope. Yeah, one would hope. The whole thing about him claiming to the detective that he had a chloroform fetish, I've never heard of such a thing. I mean, it's, you know, it's one of these things where it's like just when you think

Starting point is 00:09:23 you've heard just about everything. I don't understand what that means. Like, so, so it seems like he, I guess, is aroused by or the, the, the act of putting somebody under, which is what he does for his job and then having them be unconscious and then like touching them. He was fondling her breasts. He was doing things under her underwear, you know, that I won't go into great detail about, but he was using his hands to sexually abuse her and he admitted to this. So what does that tell you as a former sex crimes prosecutor, somebody who's saying, I have a chloroform fetish. I mean, he wants her to be unconscious and not be able to do anything. Right. Let's be very clear. I mean, he could couch it however he wants. He doesn't have a chloroform fetish. He has a fetish of

Starting point is 00:10:17 sexually abusing people who are incapacitated. It's a power thing for somebody like this. I mean, you can look at that towards a whole spectrum. I mean, even towards necrophilia, right? So it's a power thing for somebody like this. I mean, you can look at that towards a whole spectrum. I mean, even towards necrophilia, right? So it's like, it's not the chloroform that he's addicted to or has this fetish. He may have phrased it that way in order to minimize his actions or, you know, his proclivities. But what he was seeking is to abuse somebody who couldn't fight back. And good for her because in her own way, she did fight back and she got him. Oh, she fought back in the biggest way. And I want to give major props to her because this is somebody who realized something was not right. She had blacked

Starting point is 00:10:57 out after having a rag put over her face. And she went and bought a camera and set up a camera behind a turtle tank to videotape this. I mean, she, I mean, took action. I mean, this is like somebody being their own investigator. So I am beyond impressed by this. how the wherewithal she had to take matters into her own hands. And then she films this assault on herself, gets the video clips, goes to the police, goes to the hospital and takes care of business. I mean, a lot of people might be paralyzed, but she actually just took care of it. We see all types of people get sexually abused, you know, and it, and one person is, is different from the next, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everybody would be able to

Starting point is 00:11:51 act in this way and solve their own case, um, and take the lead. I think it's an amazing, amazing quality of hers. Uh, you know, he messed with the wrong one. Good for her because if she didn't have the ability to be conscious at the time of this event, I could imagine when she went to the police, they would turn her away and say, look, unfortunately, we just simply do not have the evidence to proceed because you don't have a cogent memory of what happened. And that's horrific. So it's amazing that she kind of beat them to the punch on that and got her own evidence. I can't even imagine kind of the thought process that she probably had to go through. Number one, realizing what was probably happening to her, the strategizing that

Starting point is 00:12:58 she must have had to take to figure out how she was going to prove this, how she was going to get him, you know, just all of those steps that she needed to take to prepare herself. And she must have been terrified to introduce that camera into the home because had she been caught doing that, you never know how he would have reacted. Like she is so incredibly brave. And I just have such respect for her. Your thoughts on the plea deal. He's going to do four years in prison. He will be on probation for 10 years after that, and then he'll have to register as a sex offender. In your view, is that enough? Obviously, I think the victim would have had to have signed off on this. Yes. Clearly, the victim, you know, the prosecution is going to talk to the victim and make sure that she is OK with that result.

Starting point is 00:13:49 I assume she said that it was OK. I personally think that that's a low deal. I think he should spend more time. I think, you know, perhaps there should have been also an additional investigation to try to see if there were more acts that they could have piled on to this indictment in order to get him kind of a higher prison sentence. You know, I just personally think that with that level of evidence and clearly you have a cooperative, enterprising, credible survivor here, somebody who I think a jury would be, you know, very inclined to believe. Plus, it looks like hard evidence. So for me, you know, I do think it's low, but there's a lot of things that are taken into consideration with respect to plea deals, such as previous history and the willingness of the complainant to sign off on it. So I guess that's where they landed. Yeah. And she has a civil suit pending. So that's working its way through the courts as well. Serena Townsend, thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:14:50 Appreciate your time as always. Thanks for having me. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Manjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

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Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 'Chloroform Fetish' Doctor Sexually Abused Nanny

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