A Lansford man, charged with the rape of a mentally disabled woman, who he worked for as a caretaker, entered a guilty plea in Carbon County court on Thursday.

He pleaded to a lesser count when the prosecution admitted it could not prove the original charges filed against him.

James Thomas Nunemacher, 58, appeared before Judge Joseph J. Matika to enter a plea to one count of indecent exposure after District Attorney Michael S. Greek said his office was agreeing to drop counts of rape of a mentally disabled person, sexual assault and indecent assault person with mental disability.

Greek told the court that “the forensic evidence does not support us pursuing the charges.” Greek said he discussed at length with the mother and victim, both of whom were in the courtroom, about the case and the reason for the plea deal.

Greek said there was no DNA evidence to link the defendant to the original set of charges. He said the mother of the victim was the sole witness of the indecent exposure charge. He said the case was thoroughly investigated and that was the reason it took so long to reach a conclusion. Nunemacher was charged for an incident on Sept. 17, 2018, and has been in the county prison over two years on the charges and charges in a second case, which he also entered a plea.

In that case he pleaded to one count each of criminal trespass, a felony 3, and corruption of a minor, a misdemeanor 1, for an incident on Nov. 4, 2018. Lansford police charged him with entering a home along West Ridge Street. A burglary count was dropped in a plea deal.

Rape case

State police at Lehighton took over the investigation of the case due to a conflict for Lansford police.

Troopers charged that the rape occurred at the victim’s residence while her mother watched television in the next room. At the time of the arrest, the victim’s mother told police that Nunemacher had access to the home, located on East Bertsch Street, but she did not know he was there at the time of the alleged rape.

The mother told state police that on the night of Sept. 18, she was watching football in her living room when she noticed several lights were on that she did not remember turning on. She went to turn them off, believing it was her mentally disabled daughter, who was supposed to be in bed. The mother then noticed a door leading to an enclosed back patio was open, and went to investigate.

She told police that when she entered the patio, she saw Nunemacher pulling up his pants and adjusting his belt, and the victim lying on the floor of the patio partially undressed.

The mother said Nunemacher stood there stunned as the victim stood up and pulled her pants up. The victim then allegedly told Nunemacher he had to leave.

The victim was taken to St. Luke’s Miners Campus to be examined. That examination did not produce any evidence that any sexual assault occurred, Greek said.

Troopers spoke to Nunemacher, who said he stayed at a friend’s home a couple blocks away that night, and drank heavily at a pizza shop in the borough earlier that night. He said he did not recall raping the victim.

On the indecent exposure charge Matika sentenced Nunemacher to serve one to 12 months in prison with credit for 365 days already served and paroled him. On the trespass and corruption charges he was sentenced to serve three to 23 months in prison followed by one year probation with credit for 23 months already served and paroled from the prison term.

He was also ordered to make restitution of $997, supply a DNA sample, render 50 hours of community service, have no contact with the victim or her family, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation. He will not be released from prison until the adult probation office does a pre-parole plan investigation to determine where Nunemacher will live and if it is an acceptable location.