a day ago
Ex-Western Michigan University exchange student heads to trial on sexual assault charges
A former Western Michigan University foreign exchange student from the Dominican Republic will head to trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a fellow student in 2010.
Al Allan De Los Santos Mueses, 40, was charged on July 1 and extradited from Miami, Florida, on July 11 on four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was bound over to trial on Monday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said.
Mueses, who was a student at WMU between 2009 and 2013, according to authorities, is accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman in his apartment in March 2010 after meeting her at a student recreation center. The victim reported the assault and underwent a forensic medical exam, but no charges were filed at the time.
The case is being prosecuted by the Kalamazoo Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), which was started in 2016 to investigate and prosecute sexual assaults connected to previously untested sexual assault evidence kits.
"I remain grateful to our state's devoted SAKI units and their efforts to bring about justice for victims of sexual assaults perpetrated years ago," said Nessel in a statement. "Their commitment ensures that survivors have the opportunity to see their cases fully investigated and that perpetrators are held accountable."
Nessel's office says the Kalamazoo SAKI Team is investigating more than 200 cold-case sexual assaults that happened in Kalamazoo County between 1976 and 2015.
A pretrial date has not been set for Meuses.
Anyone with information about the alleged assault or similar conduct by Mueses is encouraged to call Kalamazoo County SAKI Investigator Richard Johnson at 269-569-0515 or email.
