Great Lakes Wire

LANSING – On Friday, Cameron Alvarez, 34, of Livonia, pled guilty to two counts of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct in the 9th Circuit Court in Kalamazoo. This cold-case prosecution was part of the Kalamazoo County Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Alvarez was charged in 2022 for a sexual assault committed in January 2010 on the campus of Western Michigan University (WMU). According to the plea agreement, Alvarez is expected to serve 12 to 25 years’ incarceration and will be subject to lifetime electronic monitoring upon completion of his prison sentence.

“In Michigan, our SAKI units regularly earn convictions on often difficult investigations and prosecutions of cold-case sexual assaults,” said Nessel. “Their work is tireless and admirable, though impossible without the courage of victims who come forward and demand justice.”

In 2010, Alvarez, then a sophomore at WMU, sexually assaulted a female freshman student at the university. He met the 18-year-old victim at an off-campus party, obtained her phone number, and later arranged to watch a movie with her in her dorm room. Despite admitting that the victim made it clear she only wanted to watch a movie and did not want any sexual activity, Alvarez began sexually assaulting her almost immediately upon entering her dorm room. Surveillance camera footage from the dormitory showed that Alvarez was in the victim’s residence for fewer than 16 minutes during which he committed multiple acts of sexual penetration.

The freshman victim chose not to pursue criminal charges in 2010 partly because she felt her assault was not taken seriously by the police when reported. Consequently, her sexual assault kit was not submitted for testing until 2016 as part of a state-wide initiative addressing the backlog of untested kits under the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative. Although testing did not identify male DNA, this case was investigated by Kalamazoo SAKI—a partnership involving the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office, and YWCA of Kalamazoo. During this investigation, six other women reported being sexually assaulted by Alvarez between 2009 and 2014 in Oakland, Kalamazoo, and Ingham counties.

“Cameron Alvarez’s lengthy prison sentence is a well-deserved end to his multiple sexual assaults,” said Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey S. Getting. “The work being done here in Kalamazoo with support from 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 his actions on intoxication. This conviction, lengthy prison sentence, and future lifetime electronic monitoring will help protect the public from further victimization by Alvarez.”

Alvarez will be sentenced by 9th Circuit Court Judge Paul Bridenstine on Monday, September 16th at 8:30 a.m.

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