Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 25, 1995                   TAG: 9507250065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AIDE CHARGED WITH SEX ABUSE

James Gary Nowlin, 40, of Fair Oaks Road, was charged with aggravated sexual battery in connection with an incident last Friday at the Burrell Nursing Center on McDowell Avenue Northwest.

The victim, described in a police news release as being "physically helpless with no communicative ability," was reportedly abused in her room.

Nowlin, who works for a physical therapy agency contracted by the Burrell center, had been assigned to work with the woman. According to police, her therapy ended in February, but Nowlin continued to visit her room.

Nowlin, who was certified but not licensed as an occupational therapy assistant, is no longer allowed to work at Burrell, according to Helen Butler, director of nursing at the center.

Butler said a representative of Nowlin's employer, Rehab Management Inc. of Midlothian, was at the center Monday as part of their investigation.

In other police reports Monday:

A 74-year-old man told police he was robbed Sunday morning while visiting his wife's gravesite at St. Andrew's Cemetery on Salem Turnpike Northwest. Herman J. Altizer Jr. said he was approached by a young man carrying a pipe and demanding money. After Altizer gave him $5, he told police, the youth demanded more money before leaving. Altizer was not injured.

A Roanoke man was charged with raping and sodomizing a woman who allowed him to stay at her apartment on Williamson Road. The 31-year-old woman said the man sexually abused her after she agreed to let him sleep on a chair in her room. John Alexander Birch, 30, of Milton Street Northwest was charged with rape and sodomy.