3/6/2010
By DAVID CLOUSTON/Salina Journal

Paul Henry Parker Jr., 46, of Salina, was bound over for trial Friday on rape and other charges stemming from the alleged attack on an elderly woman in her hospital bed Feb. 20 at Salina Regional Health Center.

Saline County District Judge Rene Young ordered Parker to stand trial on felony charges at the end of a hearing at which the victim testified that she screamed, "You're killing me!" as her alleged attacker used his body to pin her to the bed on her stomach.

Parker's charges include one count of rape, one count of attempted rape, one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of aggravated burglary.

The rape, attempted rape and aggravated sexual battery counts include alternative theories upon which jurors could find Parker guilty.

On the rape charge, jurors could find that the victim was overcome by force or fear, was physically powerless, or that Parker obtained her consent by misrepresenting that intercourse was medically necessary and a part of her therapy.

The attempted rape and aggravated sexual battery charges allege that the victim was overcome by force or fear or was physically powerless.

Parker also faces two charges of misdemeanor battery.

His arraignment in Saline County District Court is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The victim crossed the floor to the jury box to testify assisted by a metal walker and by her son, who is in his 70s. She replied to questions in a firm, clear voice. As a concession to her hearing loss, attorneys were seated in a chair facing her in the witness box as they posed questions to her.

The victim, who is in her 90s, demonstrated a clear recollection overall of the incident that authorities allege occurred in a third floor patient room at Salina Regional Health Center. Her exact age and other details of her identity are part of a joint order to shield her privacy that was requested by attorneys in the case and approved by Judge Young.

Giving her testimony

The woman was in the hospital recuperating from having undergone abdominal surgery three days before the alleged incident.

The victim testified that her attacker was a large, dark-skinned male with a crew cut who was wearing a black coat. She said she assumed, when the man entered her room, that he was a therapist.

She testified that before he raped her, her attacker, a man she identified in court as Parker, rubbed her back with lotion and was touching her genital area in an attempt to sexually arouse her.

When the man touched her genital area she protested, exclaiming, "This is not therapy."

She said the man lowered his pants and exposed himself. He wanted her to fondle him, but she refused, the woman testified.

"I just laid there aghast," the woman testified, saying the man got off of her when a hospital technician walked in. She said he pulled up his pants, grabbed his coat and tried to make his way off the hospital floor.

A sexual assault examiner who examined the victim afterward, Karen Groot, testified that the victim had a genital injury consistent with a sexual attack and consistent with her account of the incident.

The victim told Groot that the man tried once and failed to rape her before ordering her to get on her hands and knees and completing the act.

Commotion draws employees

The commotion from the attack drew the attention of a hospital employee, Nedra Cummins, who entered the room and confronted the woman's alleged attacker. The man, whom she identified in court as Parker, had his pants down and she could see his bare bottom, Cummins testified.

"He stated he was in physical therapy and that (the woman) was his aunt," Cummins said.

Cummins testified that she repeatedly called for the man to stop as he left the woman's room. Cummins testified that she kept trying to step in front of Parker, who was shoving her out of the way and trying to get to an elevator. At the elevator he managed to get inside a car, but Cummins also stepped inside and blocked the button panel as nurse Deanna Saunders prevented the doors from closing.

"He was saying, 'Leave me alone, I need to get out of here,'" Cummins said.

Parker was eventually restrained by two male maintenance workers, Cummins, Saunders and a civilian bystander. They restrained him until a police officer arrived to place Parker in handcuffs.

Taking a walk

Parker has a long criminal history and had been being electronically monitored by a state parole officer since his release Jan. 15 from a work release correctional facility in Hutchinson.

After Parker was arrested he told police that he had been taking a walk on Santa Fe Avenue and decided to stop at the hospital to use the bathroom. He wound up in the victim's room on the third floor.

Parker told an officer he used the bathroom in a hospital room and afterward pulled up his sweatpants to cover his genital area but didn't pull them up all the way to his waist. He said he saw someone in the bed in the room and spoke with the person briefly, but he denied having any physical contact with the person, patrol officer Frank Glabrecht testified.

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclouston@salina.com.

---

Discuss This Story:

---