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Arrested Caregiver Ready For Extended Prison Stay

GOLDEN, Colo. (CBS4) - A caregiver accused of abusing an elderly man he was paid to help says he deserves to be in jail, but not for the charges currently being levied against him.

"The way I see this is, the karma's finally got me," Robert Bozarth, 21, told CBS4 from inside the Jefferson County Detention Center in Golden.

Bozarth says previous assaults, burglaries and weapons violations should mean he'll be spending some significant time in jail.

"Are you prepared to go to jail for several years now, if you have to?" CBS4's Tom Mustin asked Bozarth.

"Yeah. Yeah," he replied.

Robert Lee Michael Bozarth
Robert Bozarth (credit: CBS)

But Bozarth disputes the disturbing police account of what happened in Arvada earlier this week.

Bozarth said he escaped from a halfway house a month ago and found a job working for a 75-year-old at-risk man in his home on the 8000 block of Indiana Street.

"I've been living the past month looking over my should kind of spooked at every cop I saw," he said.

Bozarth said the man offered to pay him to be a caregiver and to take care of the man's dog kennel.

Officials with the Jefferson County Sheriff's office said on Tuesday night Bozarth, who is 6-foot-6, assaulted the man after an argument.

Bozarth allegedly became enraged, locked the man out of his home and slammed the door on his wrist as he tried to get back inside.

Bozarth says that story is untrue.

"He twists everyone's stories and words into his own liking, I guess," he said.

Robert Lee Michael Bozarth
Robert Lee Michael Bozarth (credit: Jefferson County Sheriff's Office)

Authorities said the man left the home to get help but Bozarth pinned him against a barbwire fence with his car. He had also allegedly tried to tie a dog collar around the man's wrist.

Someone who witnessed what was going on called police and responding deputies found Bozarth hiding under some pillows in the home.

The reason, he says, why he was hiding from police?

"I have warrants," he said.

"It's disgusting that somebody would take advantage of an elderly person, already an at-risk adult," sheriff's spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said.

Bozarth is being held in the Jefferson County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond and faces charges of kidnapping, assault and theft from an at-risk adult in the case.

RELATED: Police Say Victim Confronted Suspect About Not Working All Day

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