Whatever became of Kurt A. Rillema?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Apr 23, 2024, 01:37 PM - Edit history (3)

Crossposted in the Michigan group.

I ran into this story while looking up threads of mine from a year ago. I wondered how this had turned out. I'm still wondering.

Progress on the case is buried at the end of a story about someone else's conviction for rape.

From BlueWaveNeverEnd:

Sun Apr 23, 2023: DNA from coffee cup links 'avid golfer' to decades-old, violent rape cases on courses in 2 states

Man Sentenced to Prison for 1995 Rape of Penn State Student


The Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte on March 14, 2024. Photo by Geoff Rushton | StateCollege.com

By Geoff Rushton - March 25, 2024
Local News | Police and Crime News

The man convicted of the 1995 rape and beating of a Penn State student in State College was sentenced on Monday to at least a decade in prison. ... Scott R. Williams, 52, was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in state prison by Centre County Judge Brian Marshall. ... Williams, of Mifflin County, was found guilty in February of rape by forcible compulsion and aggravated assault after a stipulated bench trial in which the prosecution and defense submitted an agreed-upon set of facts for Marshall to render a verdict. ... As part of the bench trial agreement, Williams faced sentence ranges of no less than 7.5 to 15 years in prison and no more than 11.5 to 23 years.

{snip}

A subsequent investigation using evidence collected through a rape kit developed a DNA profile of the alleged perpetrator, and nearly five years later, on March 29, 2000, former State College detective Thomas Jordan filed an arrest warrant for a John Doe with the DNA profile. It was the first John Doe DNA criminal complaint filed in Pennsylvania. ... Detective John Ralston continued the investigation and updated the DNA profile as technology advanced. In 2019, Detective Stephen Bosak took over the investigation with the help of former Detective Nicole Eckley. ... They worked with two private labs to use the DNA samples in a genetic genealogy process that first identified distant relatives of the perpetrator. Through interviews and further DNA samples, they built out a family tree that by January 2021 brought them to Williams’s mother, who provided a DNA sample that showed the probability she was the mother of the perpetrator was 99.999%, prosecutors said at the time of Williams’ arrest.

{snip}

The genetic genealogy process used in Williams’s case has also been used to make arrests in recent years for two other Centre County rape cold cases. ... Jeffrey P. Fields, of Port Matilda, was arrested in 2020 for the serial rapes of four Penn State students between 2010 and 2017 in State College. He pleaded guilty in 2022 and was sentenced to 29.5 to 61 years in state prison. ... In April 2023, Kurt A. Rillema, of Michigan, was arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old Penn State student at knifepoint in 2000 at the Penn State Blue Golf Course. He is also charged for a similar rape in September 1999 in Michigan, where he is scheduled to stand trial first.

{Geoff Rushton is editor of StateCollege.com. Contact him at [e-mail] or find him on Twitter at @geoffrushton or at StateCollege.com's official twitter @StateCollegecom}

An article in the Oakland Press last fall, behind a paywall, says that Rillema's trial is to begin in June 2024.

New trial date for businessman accused of golf course rape

By AILEEN WINGBLAD | [e-mail] | The Oakland Press
PUBLISHED: October 26, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 26, 2023 at 8:59 a.m.

Trial is rescheduled several months out for an Oakland County businessman accused of a decades-old rape at a golf course in Oakland Township.

Initially, the trial was to have started in September for the case against Kurt Rillema, 52, of West Bloomfield, but it has since been moved to June 2024.


Kurt Rillema booking photo

As previously reported, one of Rillema’s attorneys, Deanna Kelley, had asked to be dismissed from the case, stating, in part, that Rillema has “failed to substantially fulfill an obligation” to her for her services and that he has been substantially warned about it.

The motion to withdraw was filed July 31 and an order by Judge Michael Warren was filed in early August.

{snip}

{MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST
Aileen Wingblad
[e-mail]
Aileen Wingblad's main beat is Oakland County-related crime and court action at the district, state and federal levels. She also covers Michigan's marijuana industry and other stories of interest to readers.}

[Dear_Prudence]

1. Pending in Michigan

Here is the court link, click on 'expand'
https://www.courts.michigan.gov/c/courts/coa/case/370172