West Bloomfield man sentenced to prison decades after sexual assaults in Oakland Township, Pennsylvania

OAKLAND COUNTY — A West Bloomfeld man will head to prison after being convicted of a sexual assault that took place at a local golf club over 20 years ago.

Kurt Alan Rillema, 53, of West Bloomfield, was sentenced Jan. 15 to 10-15 years in prison for the 1999 rape of a 22-year-old woman at Twin Lakes Golf Club in Oakland Township.

Rillema is also accused of raping another victim in 2000 at a Penn State golf course.

The Michigan assault happened on Sept. 6, 1999, at Twin Lakes Golf Course in Oakland Township, according to police. At the time, the victim, who now lives in another state, told deputies an unknown man came through a back employee door while she was working at a food stand on the course, demanded she take her clothes off and then sexually assaulted her.

Although DNA evidence was obtained from the crime, authorities could not identify a suspect at the time, and the DNA evidence was entered into a national DNA database.

In 2004, that evidence was matched with DNA evidence from an alleged sexual assault at a golf course at Penn State on July 27, 2000, when a 19-year-old woman was confronted by a man with a knife while she was jogging. The man allegedly held a knife to her neck and sexually assaulted her, according to reports.

At that time, authorities in Pennsylvania also had DNA evidence but could not find a matching suspect. That DNA evidence was also entered into a federal database.

Although the evidence in Pennsylvania was later destroyed under state law, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said the evidence in Oakland County was preserved, which helped solve the case.

In July 2021, Oakland County officials and Penn State police reopened the case in the hopes that a genealogical DNA approach would help uncover a suspect.  They submitted the DNA and evidence to a third-party lab for genetic genealogy testing, which traced back to the 1700s. In 2023, authorities were able to narrow the suspect down to one of three brothers. Through their investigation, they learned it was Rillema, and started surveilling him. Authorities said DNA from a coffee cup was used to confirm that Rillema was the man they were looking for.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Rillema has no criminal history and wasn’t even on investigators’ radar until the lab did some digging.

Rillema was arraigned April 18, 2023 in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills on charges of first-degree and second-degree felony criminal sexual conduct.

He pleaded no contest to third and fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in December of 2024. As a result of the plea, charges of first and second-degree criminal sexual conduct were dismissed.

The Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said it only consented to the plea agreement after consulting the victim and obtaining her approval.

“Rillema will serve serious prison time for his crime,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a statement. “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.”

Rillema’s attorney, Ellen K. Michaels, could not be reached for comment at press time.