A man accused of sexually assaulting a 95-year-old woman with dementia had his bond set at a preliminary hearing today.
James Robert Suggs is charged with two counts of first-degree rape on the grounds that the victim was mentally incapable of consenting. Suggs was initially arrested on November 4, 2024, and he has been in the Houston County Jail since then.
Houston County Sheriff’s Cpl. Brandon Barnes said the matter was brought to law enforcement’s attention when someone the elderly victim trusted who checked on her daily was at first unable to reach the victim. When the caretaker finally reached the victim, the victim said she was concerned she may be pregnant.
Barnes said forensic data showed strong evidence Suggs’s DNA was present in samples taken while the victim was being treated at the hospital.
In an interview with Suggs, Barnes said the accused claimed he had gone to the victim’s house to introduce himself and ended up taking her fishing; they had been neighbors separated by two or three houses in Cottonwood for a few years.
Suggs said in the interview there had been sexual contact while they were together on a golf cart before entering her home and once again having sexual contact with her.
Barnes said the victim had to remove her diaper during the assault; when Barnes pressed Suggs on why he would want to have sex with someone who had to remove a diaper, Suggs admitted he had been drinking.
Barnes testified Suggs later said his actions were a mistake.
Barnes said the victim had been diagnosed with dementia and onset of Alzheimer’s in 2016.
The defense attorney, Christopher Sledge, called the victim to the stand.
Sledge initially appeared to press the notion it was possible the victim could have consented, as she cooks and cleans for herself and lives alone. The victim mistakenly said she was older than she was, and she occasionally seemed to struggle to remember some names, but she testified that she was doing well.
The victim said she had seen Suggs riding around in her neighborhood and didn’t recognize him, but she soon found out he was the brother of her landlady, who she said she knew and trusted; he invited her to go fishing.
The victim said Suggs “got a little rough with her in the woods.”
When he dropped her back at her house, the victim said she invited him in, as he said he wanted to see the house.
When they reached the back bedroom, the victim said that was where Suggs made “the second attack” on her.
“I personally felt that it was safer to go along than to resist because he was much stronger than I would be physically,” the victim testified. “I knew that was safer than fighting him.”
She insisted she made no indication she wanted to engage with Suggs sexually.
Suggs had not had an Aniah’s Law hearing, and he had been held with no bond.
Judge Spencer Danzey set Suggs’s bond at $250,000 per charge. Houston County District Judge Benjamin Lewis was originally supposed to preside over the case, but he recused himself.
Although his bond was set, a bondsman is unable to make a bond over $150,000; in order for him to be released on bond, he would either need to pay $500,000 cash (the total for both counts’ bonds) or provide a property bond free of liens worth a million dollars.
The case will now be sent to a grand jury.
