News
Guilty Plea Provides Closure, Justice For Victim In 25-Year-Old Rape Case
On Wednesday, January 15, 2024, Kurt Rillema, a 52-year-old West Bloomfield, Mich. resident, was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison in Oakland County Circuit Court for Criminal Sexual Conduct in the third and fourth degree relating to a sexual assault that took place in September 1999.
Thursday, January 16, 2025
PONTIAC, Mich. - On Wednesday, January 15, 2024, Kurt Rillema, a 52-year-old West Bloomfield, Mich. resident, was sentenced to 10-15 years in prison in Oakland County Circuit Court for Criminal Sexual Conduct in the third and fourth degree relating to a sexual assault that took place in September 1999. Rillema pleaded no contest to the charges in December.
The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office only consented to the plea agreement after consulting the victim and obtaining her approval.
“Rillema will serve serious prison time for his crime,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald. “I know reliving this trauma after so many years wasn’t easy for the victim. Her strength sustained this case, and I applaud the relentless work by law enforcement that allowed us to deliver a just ending for her.”
Genetic genealogy testing of DNA evidence in a national database connected Rillema to the 1999 case in which a then 22-year-old employee was sexually assaulted at Oakland Township’s Twin Lakes Golf Club. Investigators discovered Rillema in 2021 through evidence collected in a July 2000 case involving a 19-year-old woman who was assaulted at the Penn State golf course.
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CONTACT: OCPOmedia@oakgov.com