By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

Jurors returned a guilty verdict Thursday in the trial of a former nurse assistant at a Carthage nursing home who was accused of striking a disabled resident in the groin and forcing water down his nose into his lungs through his oxygen tubing.

Dennis A. Rowe, 39, was convicted of second-degree elder abuse in a single-day trial in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin.

The case boiled down to the allegation of another former nurse assistant at the Carthage Health and Rehabilitation Center, Michael L. Wells Jr., 30, against the defendant’s denial. Wells turned Rowe in two years ago, alleging that he assaulted Benny Crowley, a brain-injured resident of the home in his mid-30s who was confined to a wheelchair, on oxygen much of the time and unable to care for himself.

Witness’s account

Wells testified for the prosecution that he and Rowe on April 14, 2007, were in Crowley’s room at the home when Wells asked Rowe how he and another man who had worked there in the past managed to “handle” Crowley as well as they did. Wells explained that Crowley posed control issues for most staff members from time to time.

He said Rowe responded to his question by walking up to Crowley, who was reclining at an angle in his wheelchair, and hitting him in his testicles. The blow caused Crowley to cry out, Wells said.

“It was the kind of cry when you get the wind knocked out of you,” Wells told the court.

He said Rowe then began smacking Crowley in the face while mockingly and repeatedly asking him: “Who did this to you?”

Confused by what was happening, Crowley answered that his roommate at the home had done it, Wells said. He said Rowe then grabbed the water canister that was hooked up to Crowley’s oxygen concentrator and held it up so that water was forced down the tubing, up the resident’s nose and into his lungs.

“Benny started choking, with the water forcibly coming out of his mouth and nose,” Wells said.

He said Rowe then started laughing and asked him if he was going to tell anybody what he had done. Wells said he raised Crowley up in his chair and leaned him forward to help get the water out of his lungs. He acknowledged that he did not immediately inform anyone of the abuse.