Woman pleads guilty in Crossroads teen rape
Xerxes Wilson , The News Journal
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2016/12/22/woman-pleads-guilty-crossroads-teen-rape/95751688/Rebecca Winters, a former Crossroads drug and alcohol counselor, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to three counts of fourth-degree rape.
The plea came three days into her trial in which she was charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old patient in her care.
Kent County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Clark ordered a pre-sentencing investigation ahead of her Feb. 28 sentencing hearing. Winters faces up to 45 years imprisonment under the plea, according to Karl Canefsky, Department of Justice spokesman.
It is unclear if prosecutors will recommend a sentence as part of the plea. John Malik, Winters' attorney, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Winters had been charged with 12 counts of fourth-degree rape and sexual abuse of a child by a person of trust, two counts of providing alcohol to a minor and continuous sexual abuse of a child. Dover police arrested Winters in August 2015 and accused her of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old for nearly three months during the summer of 2015.
The first three days of trial saw testimony from another patient at Crossroads who observed Winters' relationship with the victim as well as the victim, his mother and others.
"He would text me and tell me basically everything," said the 15-year-old girl, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor. "They had sex and she did things to him and he did things to her."
The girl, who received treatment at Crossroads for drug and alcohol abuse, described the routine of Winters regularly driving her, the victim and other children for treatment at Crossroad's Milford center. She said beach and movie outings gave clues of Winters' alleged close relationship with the victim as well as her looking the other way when rules were broken.
Winters' first trial ended in a mistrial earlier this year after testimony from a police detective was ruled to have compromised proceedings.
A separate civil lawsuit is still pending in Superior Court against Crossroads, claiming Winters's mother, Alberta Crowley, who was executive director of the now-closed organization, should have known that her daughter was sexually abusing a patient. Crowley has said she called the child abuse hotline when she learned of the relationship in August.
For more than 20 years, Crossroads, a for-profit organization, provided behavioral healthcare for adults and juveniles through outpatient substance abuse treatment, an adolescent full-day plan and intensive outpatient program for adults.
