CORAM, N.Y. – A 65-year-old Coram man with a history of sex offenses has been sentenced to 15 years in state prison after admitting to raping a woman he met while hospitalized in Port Jefferson.
According to Suffolk County prosecutors, Rupert Cruz pleaded guilty in June to first-degree rape, a violent felony, for the assault that occurred in June 2023. He will also serve 10 years of post-release supervision.
Authorities said Cruz, then 63, encountered the 34-year-old victim while both were patients at St. Charles Hospital. After their discharge, he offered her a ride home. During the drive, investigators said he gave her a drink from an open soda can, made unwanted advances, and then forced himself on her.
The victim’s memory of the incident was impaired, but during a phone call with a friend, the friend overheard her screaming for help. The woman later awoke in a wooded area at Bartlett Pond Park in Middle Island, injured and partially unclothed. She sought medical care at Stony Brook Hospital, where DNA evidence linked Cruz to the assault.
Cruz was arrested in September 2023 after the New York State DNA Database identified him as the suspect. His criminal history includes repeated failures to register as a sex offender and a 1987 conviction for first-degree rape, sexual abuse, and attempted coercion. He was released from prison in 1996 but continued to violate sex offender registry requirements in the years that followed.
Justice Karen M. Wilutis handed down the 15-year prison sentence on August 26, 2025. Cruz was represented by defense attorney Ian Fitzgerald. The prosecution was led by Assistant District Attorneys Jacob DeLauter, Kapish A. Barry, and Danielle Carter of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Major Crime Bureau, with investigative support from Detective Travis Pfeffer of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Sixth Squad.
Role of the New York State DNA Databank
The case against Cruz was solved largely because of New York State’s DNA Databank, which contains genetic profiles collected from individuals convicted of felonies and certain misdemeanors. Since its creation in 1996, the databank has grown into one of the largest in the country, holding over 700,000 offender profiles.
Law enforcement officials say the system has been instrumental in linking suspects to unsolved cases. When the DNA collected from the victim’s examination was analyzed, it immediately matched Cruz’s profile already stored in the databank due to his prior rape conviction and repeated sex offender registration violations.
Prosecutors often point to cases like this as proof of how critical the database is in protecting the public, particularly from repeat offenders. Civil liberties groups, however, have raised questions in the past about how the databank is used and the potential for privacy concerns when genetic information is stored long-term.
