Trial begins for man charged with raping teen at Mass. shelter for families
The trial for a Haitian man charged with raping a teenage girl at a Massachusetts family shelter is set to begin with opening statements on Thursday.
Cory Alvarez faces a single count of aggravated rape of a child with a ten-year age difference in connection with an incident at a Comfort Inn in Rockland on March 13, 2024. Prosecutors dropped a charge of rape of a child with force last week, court records show.
Police were called that night for a report of a girl who said she'd been raped. Authorities later said there wasn't a pre-existing relationship between Alvarez and the girl before the incident.
Rockland police took the girl to South Shore Hospital for treatment after arriving at the hotel.
Alvarez has been held on a $150,000 bail after a judge raised it from $500 last fall in an attempt to keep him in the country to stand trial. Immigration authorities arrested Alvarez after he initially posted a lower bail last year, but they returned him to state custody as part of an agreement with Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz's Office. He's been in custody ever since.
The hotel where Alvarez resided was part of the state's shelter program for homeless families, officials previously said.
Alvarez's attorney, Brian Kelley, challenged the legality of whether a judge could raise a defendant's bail to keep him in the country, and it went before the state's Supreme Judicial Court this spring . The court has yet to issue a decision.
Alvarez entered the country legally and had undergone two background checks, his attorney, Brian Kelley, previously said in court, citing Gov. Maura Healey's office.
It is not clear how long Alvarez had been living at the hotel and Kelley said he spent time in New York City before arriving in Massachusetts.
Alvarez was in the United States as part of the Biden administration's Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans Program, the district attorney's office previously said.
During his arraignment in Brockton Superior Court on May 31, Alvarez pleaded not guilty.
On Aug. 13, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Boston Field Office took Alvarez into custody and he's been held in an ICE unit within the Plymouth County House of Corrections since.
Alvarez's deportation would have "(left) him unable to answer the accusations against him," Cruz's office said in a statement. "Such a scenario would halt the case indefinitely, preventing any resolution for both the alleged victim and the defendant."
The judge found the prosecutor's arguments convincing. The district attorney's office quoted the judge as saying, "The Commonwealth does have a case of strength. The court finds justice requires the increase in bail."
"The United States government could go pick up Mr. Alvarez, take him into custody and remove him any time they want and they have not," John Zanini, a lawyer for the district attorney's office, said at a hearing in May. "They have not because they are respecting right now our custody so that we can proceed with our trial."
There were 15 people chosen for the jury pool on Tuesday and Wednesday. Jurors will be sworn in and then opening statements will begin on Thursday.
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