Convicted sex offender indicted on child rape charge

Area News

January 12, 2009

By Michael R. Moser / mmoser@crossville-chronicle.com The Crossville Chronicle Mon Jan 12, 2009, 04:13 PM CST

A former Knoxville man, a convicted sex offender who had failed to register locally when moving into the community and living in a Crossville inn, has been indicted by the Cumberland County Grand Jury on a charge of rape of a child.

Richard Henry Brower, 61, Room 159 of the Village Inn, was arrested Jan. 7 and served with the sealed indictment. In late November, Brower had been charged with that offense and with violating the sex offender registration law after the parents of a young child filed a complaint about him, according to reports.

Crossville Ptls. Richard Menzl and Elizabeth Diaz responded to a call at the inn on Nov. 29 and were told by parents of a nine-year-old girl that they suspected their daughter had been molested.

The girl told her mom and dad, and later police, that she had been playing in the parking lot of the inn when a man from the next-door apartment invited her into his room, where the alleged incident took place.

As part of the investigation, the parents took the child to Cumberland Medical Center for an examination. Also, the Department of Children's Services was called in to conduct that agency's own investigation.

Two days after the incident police questioned Brower about the incident and reportedly he gave investigators a statement.

At the time of his initial arrest, he was reportedly out on bond as a result of charges in Roane County, and was a convicted sex offender in Knox County.

Brower is to appear in Cumberland County Criminal Court Jan. 23.

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