Kansas City man charged with attempting to rape a woman in hospital bed
A 31-year-old Kansas City man has been charged with attempted rape after police responded Thursday to a report of an assault on a woman at a local hospital.
Elisha Beraiah was charged Friday with first-degree attempted rape and first-sodomy, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said.
According to court documents, the woman, who is visually impaired, was sleeping in a hospital bed at University Health Medical Center. When she woke up, she felt someone’s body pressed against her and attempted to push him away. She begged him to to get out of her bed and yelled for help, a probable cause statement said.
The man attempted to rape her, the statement said.
A staff member responded to the room and saw the man with his pants down. When she attempted to push him off the bed, he continued thrusting his hips against the victim, court records said.
Beraiah was arrested and told police he remembered going to the hospital, but did not want to talk about it because he was “not in the ‘right state of mind.’” He then asked for legal representation.
He is being held at the Jackson County Detention Center without bond. Court records do not yet list a defense attorney.
Beraiah was not an employee at the hospital, said Leslie Carto, a spokeswoman for University Health.
“University Health is working closely with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department in its continued investigation of a reported attempted rape within University Health Truman Medical Center,” she said in a statement. “Hospital staff responded immediately and notified police as soon as the incident was brought to its attention. The health system is also conducting its own internal investigation.”
In April 2016, Beraiah was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse in Jackson County. He was incarcerated for 120 days and under supervised probation for three years, completing it in April 2020. He is a registered sex offender and was listed in Missouri State Highway Patrol records as being noncompliant.
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 10:44 AM.
