Caretaker accused of raping 90-year-old woman near Elbe

A man investigators said repeatedly raped the 90-year-old woman he was supposed to being caring for at her Elbe-area home pleaded not guilty at arraignment Thursday.

James Crowder Jr., 51, allegedly told police the woman was his girlfriend and denied raping her.

Prosecutors didn’t buy that, and charged Crowder with four counts of second-degree rape, and one count of unlawful drug possession — for methamphetamine he allegedly had when he was arrested.

Court Commissioner Meagan Foley set his bail at $500,000.

According to charging papers:

The woman had shortness of breath and pain in her limbs Sept. 15, a few weeks before her 91st birthday, and she ended up at the Elbe fire station. That’s where she reported that her live-in caretaker had raped and abused her for years.

She told investigators she was friends with Crowder’s aunt, and that she let Crowder move in after he got out of jail. It was a few days after he moved in, which he told investigators was in September 2010, that she said he started to rape her.

The woman said sometimes he would force himself on her as he was helping her around the house with things she couldn’t do herself.

And he hadn’t been filling her prescriptions like he was supposed to. She had been without her medicines for about two weeks when she talked to investigators.

Crowder has previous convictions for incest and first-degree child molestation, for which he is a registered sex offender.

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Caretaker accused of raping 90-year-old woman near Elbe."