Latest news with #KevinCruz
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Yahoo
‘Shocks the conscience:' Oak Park man given 5 years for stalking, harassing victim he met on a dating app
OAK PARK, Ill. (WGN) — A suburban Chicago man will spend five years in prison and pay more than $15,000 in restitution for stalking and harassing a victim he met on a dating app. 34-year-old Kevin Cruz, an Oak Park resident who pleaded guilty to a federal cyberstalking charge in 2024, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay $17,313.18 in restitution for the cyberstalking campaign, which lasted nearly two years, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Illinois announced Thursday. Prosecutors said Cruz first met the victim in 2021 on the dating app Grindr. The two discussed a potential intimate relationship and at one point, Cruz even sent the victim nude photographs of himself. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines The two had met on several occasions, but prosecutors said the relationship soured when Cruz expressed interest in pursuing a romantic relationship with the victim, who did not express the same feelings. Things then took a dark turn starting in December of 2021 when prosecutors say Cruz began harassing and intimidating the victim. The Cyberstalking campaign lasted through mid-2023 and prosecutors said during that period, Cruz created several fake profiles on dating apps in which he impersonated the victim. While impersonating the victim, prosecutors said Cruz arranged for men to travel to the victim's home for sexual encounters and, in some instances, even instructed them to enter the victim's home and attempt to have sex with him even if he resisted, telling the men that it was part of a role-playing scenario. As a result, prosecutors said numerous men arrived at the victim's home seeking sex as a result of their communications with Cruz. LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland In addition to the phony meetups, Cruz also sent nude photographs of the victim to the victim's family members, including his mother, brother and cousins. In one instance, prosecutors said Cruz used a spoofed phone number to text the victim's mother and falsely suggest the victim had committed suicide. 'Defendant's conduct shocks the conscience,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih said during sentencing 'He created significant risks that the victim would be hurt, injured, and raped.' Cruz's sentence was handed down on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger. The U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Illinois did not provide a booking photo for Cruz. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
01-05-2025
- CBS News
Former Chicago nurse sentenced to 5 years for cyberstalking, harassing man he met on dating app
A former Rush University Medical Center nurse has been sentenced to 5 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to harassing and cyberstalking a man he met on a dating app, including setting up fake online profiles impersonating the victim, leading to hundreds of men showing up at the victim's home seeking sex. Cruz also admitted to sending nude photographs of the victim to his family, and falsely telling the victim's mother that he'd committed suicide. Kevin Cruz, 34, of Oak Park, Illinois, pleaded guilty last year to one count of sending electronic communications with the intent to harass and intimidate. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Seven Seeger sentenced him to 5 years in prison, and ordered him to pay the victim more than $17,000 in restitution. According to the charges, Cruz met the victim on Grindr in August 2021. The victim, a personal trainer, initially exchanged phone numbers with Cruz, provided personal training sessions to him, and sent him nude photos of himself. After a few months, when Cruz pursued a deeper romantic relationship, the victim said he wasn't interested, and Cruz began setting up several profiles on various dating apps, impersonating the victim, and sharing near-nude photos of the victim. Cruz then began communicating with users on those dating apps to set up meetings at the victim's house for sex, resulting in hundreds of men showing up at the victim's home seeking sex between December 2021 and February 2023. In some cases, the people Cruz had contacted were told they should enter his home without knocking, and if the victim told them to stop, it was just part of a roleplaying game, and they should try to have sex with him anyway. At one point, the victim moved out of his Oak Park apartment and moved in with his parents, but men kept showing up unannounced seeking sex. As a result, police stationed a patrol car outside his home to stop men from going in. Cruz also sent the victim's boss and family members nude photos of him multiple times in 2022, including his mother, brother, cousins, and aunts. He also sent the victim's mother a text message in April 2022 falsely claiming the victim had committed suicide. The victim obtained an order of protection against Cruz in Cook County Circuit Court in July 2022, prohibiting Cruz from contacting the victim in any way, or from coming within 1,000 feet of his home, or sending out any photographs of the victim, but the harassment continued, according to prosecutors. As part of the FBI investigation into Cruz's harassment, the victim arranged for a meeting on May 5, 2023, at a Starbucks in Villa Park. Wearing a hidden camera while undercover agents set up surveillance, the victim asked Cruz to "Admit that it's you like abusing my family . . . like all the messages from fake numbers to my family and to me. Like, it's hundreds in a day," according to the charges. Cruz admitted, "It was all me. Is that what you want to hear?" After walking out of the Starbucks and approaching the victim's car, the victim asked Cruz "Ok, one last question is who wrote who wrote 'ho' on my car right here? Who wrote this on my car?" When Cruz admitted it was him, the victim asked, "you keyed my car?" and Cruz said yes, according to the charges. Cruz then tried to block the victim from getting into his car, and FBI agents contacted local police, who escorted Cruz back to his own car. After that meeting, Cruz continued to harass the victim, sending him text messages from "spoofed" phone numbers, sending flowers and food to his home, and leaving a handwritten message on his car, begging his forgiveness. Cruz was arrested at his home on May 16, 2023, after he was spotted outside the gym where the victim worked, placing a note on the victim's car. Cruz has been accused of stalking other men. Cook County Circuit Court records show a Chicago man obtained an order of protection against him in 2011, only to have him send hundreds of text messages over the next two years. A former co-worker at Rush also obtained a workplace protection order against him in 2022 after Cruz was fired by the hospital, which had launched its own independent investigation into Cruz's harassment of the victim, who also worked at Rush at the time. After he was fired, Cruz began sending repeated messages to former colleagues vowing to fight his termination and seeking their support to get his job back, prompting at least one former co-worker to obtain an order of protection against him.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
High school seniors in Springfield explore career opportunities
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – With just a few months out until graduation, high school seniors are under pressure to figure out what's next. On Monday, a career fair was held at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. Hosted by Springfield Public Schools and Hope for Youth and Families, students got the chance to explore career opportunities in their neighborhood. Reminders from local experts ahead of tax deadline More than 70 industries came together, from first responders to nursing. The different workplaces offered insight and guidance, and some even shared summer internship availability. One woman who has worked in the operating engineering field since she was 28 attended the fair and is encouraging other females to work on the tools in construction. 'We have a program, it's once a month called Trades Women Wednesday on Zoom, and it's just an hour-long talk about what is a building trade apprenticeship, how do I start, you know what's great about being a plumber, what's fantastic about being an electrician, what's being an operating engineer all about,' shared Amy Calandrellam, Co-Founder of Western Mass Trades Women. Some students credit the job fair for the guidance it has offered over the years,' said high school senior Kevin Cruz. 'I came here last year for a career fair like this and it was helpful to make me think about what I want to do in life.' Kevin plans to attend Springfield College in the fall and study finance. He also has a passion for music and looks forward to finding career opportunities that combine his two passions. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
