Man, 21, charged with domestic and sexual assault against 14-year-old
WOONSOCKET — Police arrested a 21-year-old city man on charges of third-degree sexual assault for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl on multiple occasions dating back to last spring.
Jean M. Alava of 423 Willow St. was also charged with two counts of domestic assault for punching the same girl, once when they “broke up” outside of Woonsocket High School recently, according to police.
After taking a complaint from the girl and her mother at police headquarters, police looked for Alava at his home on Saturday night and found him hiding in an attic. The attempted diversion prompted police to file an additional count of obstructing against him.
Police said the girl initially came to police headquarters to report only the alleged assaults and subsequent threats against her by Alava. The girl told police she had been in an ongoing relationship with Alava for about a year, but that he had become jealous of her. He had given her a cellphone and demanded that it be returned, along with the security code, so that he could inspect it to see if she was sharing photos with other males.
If she did not give him the
code, he told her he would “send people to do bad things” to her, she told police.
At one point, she said Alava told her, “If you are ever with another man, I will kill him and hurt you,” police reports say.
When they had an argument and broke up in front of WHS on Jan. 21, Alava allegedly struck her in the face with a closed fist. He struck her again in the same fashion at her house in early February.
When police asked her if the relationship with Alava had been intimate, the girl reluctantly admitted it was, the police say. She told police she had sex with Alava willingly, however, because she was in love with him.
But it’s unlawful for an adult to have sex with anyone under 16 in Rhode Island, even if it is consensual. If the adult’s partner is 14 or older but younger than 16, the crime is defined as third-degree sexual assault, punishable by up to five years in prison. An adult convicted of having sexual contact with a person younger than 14 is guilty of some form of child molestation, for which penalties vary depending on the nature of the offense.
Alava was charged with four counts of third-degree sexual assault.
In addition to the new charges, Alava has two unrelated criminal cases pending against him, and he was on bail from them when he was arrested Saturday. One was for domestic disorderly conduct, the other resisting arrest – charges dating back to May and August of last year, respectively, according to the judiciary’s website.
As a result, Alava was charged as a violator and ordered held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions following an initial appearance in Sixth District Court on Monday.