Last summer, a woman on a work trip in Auburn Hills was sleeping in her hotel room when a man obtained a copy of her room key and raped her at the Sonesta Select hotel. The court has now sentenced him to up to six decades in prison.
The survivor spoke in court on Tuesday, as Joel Delevara, 36, was sentenced to 22 to 60 years in jail.
“This experience has created a lasting trauma for me. I feel like the person I was – confident, joyful and trusting – has been taken from me,” she said. “I often feel that I don’t want to leave the house.”
A video displayed at the trial from the hotel depicts a group of individuals assembled for a work conference, including the survivor.
“Working vacations or staying at a hotel will never be the same,” she said.
That group included both Delevara and the woman. She then went to her room to sleep, but he remained in the lobby until he received a key to her room from the front desk.
“The concerted effort beforehand to get into that room is alarming and it’s scary quite frankly,” said Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor David Champine. “The really bold move to go to the front desk and ask for a key to another person’s room with no permission which – the fact that was given to him is beside the point of what we’re here for right now – but the brazenness of being willing to do that and then to go into someone’s room, sexually assault them for nine minutes and then hightail it out of the hotel. This case is just heinous.”
Judge Yazmine Poles of Oakland County Circuit Court agreed, ordering Delavara to jail on consecutive rape and home invasion sentences.
“You’re the person who asked for the key. You said that key belonged to you that you’re going to go to that room, that you had permission to go to that room. There’s not one link of evidence to show you had permission to go to this woman’s room – but yet you do,” Poles said.
Attorney Todd Flood is defending the woman in her case against Sonesta Select.
“But for the hotel giving this key to this rapist – this would have never happened,” Flood said. “You just can’t give out a key without checking, without seeing what the heck is going on, whether or not there’s permission or not to get into that room. It’s a tragedy and they should be held accountable too.”
