A mixed finite element method is presented for the Biot consolidation problem in poroelasticity. More precisely, the displacement is approximated by using the Crouzeix-Raviart nonconforming finite elements, while the fluid pressure is approximated by using the node conforming finite elements. The well-posedness of the fully discrete scheme is established, and a corresponding priori error estimate with optimal order in the energy norm is also derived. Numerical experiments are provided to validate the theoretical results.