By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
NILES, MI – Recent court action in Berrien County Trial Court and Cass County Circuit Court featured a prison sentence for a Berrien Springs man convicted of criminal sexual conduct and another warning to a former Niles resident to stop hoarding animals.
Joshua Salawia, 41, of Berrien Springs was found guilty by a Trial Court jury last fall of three first-degree criminal sexual conduct (CSC) counts, one second-degree criminal sexual conduct count, and one domestic violence count.
Berrien County Assistant Prosecutor Myrene Koch reported that Trial Court Judge Gordon Hosbein sentenced Salawia to 3 terms of 285 to 600 months in prison on the first-degree CSC counts, a term of 84 to 180 months in prison on the second-degree CSC count, and 93 days in jail on the domestic violence count.
Salawia has credit for 280 days already served. He must have lifetime GPS monitoring and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. All the prison terms are concurrent with each other. Tier III sex offenders must remain on the Michigan Sex Offender Registration Act for the rest of their lives and are required to verify their information four times a year.
The CSC incidents occurred Dec. 1, 2024 in the Berrien Springs area against an underage female. The domestic violence incident also occurred in the Berrien Springs area on March 22, 2025.
Salawia also faces new charges stemming from an April 15, 2025 incident. Those charges are aggravated possession of child sexually abusive materials and use of a computer for criminal activity. Those charges could be dismissed given the prison sentence he received last week.
A former Niles resident with a history of hoarding animals was back in Cass court last week. Robert Dean Archer II was sentenced on three felony counts of cruelty to animals in Cass County Circuit Court.
Archer, 42, now of Peavine Street in Cassopolis, pleaded guilty to three counts of third offense cruelty/abandonment of animals and was sentenced to 3 years probation in mental health court, credit for 16 days in jail already served, and $2,764 in fines and costs.
No restitution was ordered in the case and Archer was ordered to not possess any animals without the express written consent of the court.
This incident occurred last May when a citizen filed a complaint about unhealthy conditions with the Cass County Animal Control after visiting Archer’s property in Howard Township near Niles.
Cass County Circuit Court Judge Mark Herman reported that animal control officers visited the home and found trash, debris, urine and feces as well as an inadequate supply of food. They collected 18 dogs, 11 gerbils, 16 guinea pigs, 54 chickens, 2 ducks, 8 rabbits, 4 doves, 13 African clawed frogs, a crawfish, a snapping turtle, and over 100 fish.
“You are 42 years old, and this is the third time you are before the court for your inability to care for animals,” Judge Herman said. “It’s not malicious on your part, you just don’t have the ability to care for them. You may do one or two animals but then you keep collecting animals and the animals become severely neglected to the point that it’s considered cruelty under the law.”
“You have 3 felony convictions here where you could go to prison for up to 4 years,” the judge added. “The prosecutor has agreed to mental health court to give you the opportunity for the charges to be reduced to misdemeanors if you’re successful. You’ve already started mental health treatment and I’ve been told you’re doing real well.”
In updates on other court cases, a South Bend man is scheduled to go to trial next week at the Niles courthouse in connection with a July 2025 murder case. Rene Lopez Alvarado is scheduled to go to trial next Wednesday, Feb. 25 in Berrien County Trial Court.
Alvarado, 33, was arrested July 21 and arraigned on open murder and felony firearm charges.
Berrien County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to the Franklin Woods mobile home park, 1950 S. 13th St., on July 21 on reports of a deceased woman inside a home. According to the police report, it was Alvarado who made the initial 9-1-1 call to police.
The woman found dead was identified as 29 year old Courtney Hershberger. An autopsy conducted at WMED in Kalamazoo indicated that she died of a gunshot wound. It is believed that Hershberger and Alvarado were in a relationship.
The complaint and warrant in the court file for Alvarado indicated that Alvarado gave a number of explanations to sheriff’s deputies for what happened to Hershberger. He initially stated that he believed that she had committed suicide, adding that he had not been at the home at the time of the shooting and discovered her body hours later.
A May trial date has been set for a St. Louis, Missouri resident charged in connection with a 2023 homicide in Niles.
Jamie Phillip Perry, 30, of St. Louis, Missouri, is facing open murder as well as being a felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony for the Sept. 30, 2023 death of Niles resident Luke James Botica at Botica’s home on the north side of Niles. Botica was shot after an alleged dispute over drugs and money.
Perry was bound over for trial after preliminary hearings spanning four days in late 2023. In the months since then, he has been found both competent and not competent to stand trial. He most recently was found competent to stand trial earlier this month after receiving mental health treatment.
Court dates in his case are March 18 for a status conference, April 20 for a status conference and a jury trial starting May 6 at the Niles courthouse.