A man from suburban Chicago has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for cyberstalking a victim he met online. Kevin Cruz, who encountered the victim in 2021 on the dating app Grindr, engaged in a campaign of harassment spanning from December 2021 to mid-2023 after initial personal meetings with the victim.
Cruz created several profiles impersonating the victim on Grindr and other dating apps, arranging for men to visit the victim's home for sexual encounters under false pretenses. Cruz, posing as the victim, gave instructions suggesting forced entry for sex as part of a fabricated role-playing scenario, leading to multiple men arriving at the victim's residence.
Additionally, Cruz distributed explicit photos of the victim to his family members and falsely implied the victim's suicide in a message to the victim's mother.
At 34 years old, Cruz, a resident of Oak Park, Illinois, pleaded guilty to federal cyberstalking charges last year. Besides the prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger ordered him to pay $17,313.18 in restitution to the victim.
The sentencing was publicized by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Douglas S. DePodesta, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Chicago Field Office. "Defendant’s conduct shocks the conscience," stated Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan L. Shih in the sentencing memorandum. "He created significant risks that the victim would be hurt, injured, and raped."