Michigan man pleads guilty to 2010 sexual assault cold case at Western Michigan University
(CBS DETROIT) - A Livonia man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a fellow student at Western Michigan University in January 2010.
Cameron Alvarez, 34, was charged in 2022 for the sexual assault committed on the Kalamazoo campus. On Friday, Alvarez pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, the Michigan Attorney General's Office said.
According to the attorney general's office, in January 2010, Alvarez, a sophomore at the time, met an 18-year-old woman at an off-campus party, got her phone number and called her after the party to watch a movie with her in her dorm room.
Alvarez admitted that despite the victim, a WMU freshman at the time, making it clear that she only wanted to watch a movie and not engage in sexual activity, Alvarez sexually assaulted her "almost immediately" when they entered her dorm room. Surveillance camera footage from the dorm shows Alvarez was in the victim's room for less than 16 minutes.
Officials say the "victim chose not to pursue criminal charges in 2010 based, in part, on feeling that her assault was not taken seriously by the police when she reported it." As a result, a sexual assault evidence kit was not submitted for testing until 2016, when it was sent to a private lab as part of Michigan's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative to address a backlog of untested kits.
While the tests of the kit didn't identify male DNA, the case was investigated by several agencies, including Kalamazoo SAKI, the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor's Office, and the YWCA of Kalamazoo.
During the investigation, officials say six other women reported being sexually assaulted by Alvarez between 2009 and 2014 in Ingham, Kalamazoo and Oakland counties.
"In Michigan, our SAKI units regularly earn convictions on often difficult investigations and prosecutions of cold-case sexual assaults," said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. "Their work is tireless and admirable, though impossible without the courage of victims who come forward and demand justice."
As part of his plea agreement, Alvarez is expected to serve 12-25 years in prison and will be subjected to a lifetime of electronic monitoring.
"Cameron Alvarez's lengthy prison sentence is a well-deserved end to his multiple sexual assaults," said Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey S. Getting, in a statement. "The work being done here in Kalamazoo, with the help and support of the Attorney General's Office, on behalf of sexual assault survivors is amazing. With each conviction we make the State a safer place."
"I commend the courage and resilience of all of the women who came forward to report traumatic assaults perpetrated on them by Cameron Alvarez," said Erin House, Special Assistant Attorney General, of the Kalamazoo SAKI Unit. "Their courage revealed that Alvarez is a serial sexual offender who preyed upon female friends and acquaintances and then tried to excuse his behavior by blaming the victims and blaming his actions on his intoxication. This conviction, lengthy prison sentence, and future lifetime electronic monitoring will help to protect the public from further victimization by Alvarez."
Alvarez will be sentenced on Sept. 16.
