Judge sets higher bail for man accused of rape at Rockland shelter

A Superior Court judge on Monday increased bail for a man accused of raping a 15-year-old at a shelter for migrant families in Rockland. He has halted his deportation to Haiti to allow the criminal case against him to proceed, officials announced.

Cory Alvarez, 26, has been charged with aggravated battery on a child with a 10-year age difference and one count of rape of a child by force, according to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors requested that Alvarez’s bail be increased to $1 million. During a hearing on Monday, a judge allowed cash bail to be set at $150,000. Immigration officials planned to deport the 26-year-old back to Haiti on Thursday, but prosecutors argued that if Alvarez were to leave the country, it would “halt the case indefinitely” and prevent a resolution for both the victim and Alvarez himself. the police said. DA’s office.

Prosecutors allege that on March 13, Alvarez raped a 15 year old girl at the Comfort Inn at 850 Hingham St. in Rockham. Alvarez was live in the hotelpart of a state program to house migrant families.

When Rockland police responded to the report of a sexual assault at the hotel, they encountered the teenage girl, who was taken to a South Shore Hospital for treatment.

“As a result of their investigation, the Rockland Police Department determined probable cause to arrest Alvarez, and he was taken into custody,” the district attorney’s office said.

At a dangerous conduct hearing earlier this year, Alvarez was determined not to pose a danger and bail was set at $500, which he posted the same day. That was him taken into custody months later by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a pretrial conference in August and has since been held in the ICE unit within the Plymouth County House of Corrections, according to the district attorney’s office.

With deportation proceedings against Alvarez suspended following Monday’s judge’s order, he will appear in court on November 13 on the charges against him.