A Coram man who is a previously convicted sex offender was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping a 34-year-old woman.
In June 2023, Rupert Cruz met the victim, who was 32 years old at the time, while they were both patients at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. When Cruz and the victim were discharged, Cruz offered the victim a ride home, and she accepted. While the victim was in Cruz’s vehicle, he gave her a drink from an open soda can. While Cruz was driving, he began making sexual advances towards the victim, which she rejected.
Cruz picked the victim up from the passenger seat and forced her on top of him while he was still seated in the driver’s seat. The victim did not remember anything after that. The victim’s friend called her while she was struggling with Cruz, and the friend could hear the victim screaming for help. The victim woke up naked the following morning in a wooded area in Bartlett Pond Park in Middle Island. The victim was in pain, with scratches and bruises on her body, red marks on her neck, and broken blood vessels in her eye. The victim then located a few items of her clothing and left the park.
Afterwards, the victim went to Stony Brook Hospital, where she underwent a sexual assault nurse examination. A male DNA profile was found on the vaginal swab taken during the examination. The DNA profile was a direct hit to Cruz’s record on file with the New York State DNA Database. Cruz was placed under arrest by members of the Suffolk County Police Department in September 2023.
Cruz has prior convictions for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender in 2005, 2006, 2008, and 2018. In 1987, he was convicted of Rape in the First Degree, Sexual Abuse in the First Degree and Attempted Coercion in the First Degree and served time in prison until he was released on parole in October 1996.
On June 13, 2025, Cruz pleaded guilty to Rape in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, before Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen M. Wilutis.
On August 26, 2025, Wilutis sentenced Cruz to 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of post-release supervision.
“This sexual predator was 63 years old and had a prior forcible rape conviction and multiple failures to register as a sex offender, when he targeted, drugged, and violently attacked this woman,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “Sexual predators are dangerous, no matter their age. Tragically, under the pending Elder Parole bill in the New York State legislature, offenders just like this defendant would be given early parole hearings, putting vulnerable victims at risk. It is time for our legislature to start prioritizing victims over criminals.”