A suburban Chicago man has received a five-year federal prison sentence for a severe case of cyberstalking. Kevin Cruz, from Oak Park, Illinois, inflicted a harrowing experience on a victim he initially met through the online dating platform Grindr, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.
The encounters between the two began in 2021 with the expectation of a possible romantic relationship. However, the situation took a dark turn after Cruz was rebuffed by the victim, a response that spawned over a year and a half of intimidation and harassment. What began as an exchange of intimate photos led to a persistent nightmare for the victim. Cruz misused his pictures and relentlessly attempted to manipulate his personal life by way of impersonation and deception.
Cruz’s deceitful tactics included creating multiple fake profiles on dating apps where he masqueraded as the victim to arrange sexual encounters with other men at the victim’s home. In some disturbing instances, he went so far as to encourage non-consensual acts, suggesting resistance was part of prearranged role-play scenarios. This unyielding cyberstalking campaign escalated to Cruz sending explicit photos to the victim's family members and even insidiously informing the victim's mother of a fabricated suicide, all actions that played out from December 2021 until mid-2023, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.
U.S. District Judge Steven C. Seeger issued the sentence against the 34-year-old on Wednesday, alongside a restitution order for Cruz to pay more than $17,000 to the victim, for the measurable toll the ordeal took on his life. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan L. Shih stated Cruz’s behavior was beyond the pale, expressing in a government memo, "Defendant’s conduct shocks the conscience," as stated by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois. Cruz had entered a guilty plea to a federal cyberstalking charge last year before receiving his current five-year prison term.
