Credit: Falls Township police
A Falls Township man is headed to state prison.
Roberto Cruz, 57, was sentenced earlier this week by Bucks County Judge Diane E. Gibbons to 15 to 30 years in state prison for sexually assaulting two young girls. He previously pleaded guilty to the crimes.
Advertisements
According to authorities, Cruz repeatedly molested and raped one young girl and sexually assaulted a second in a vehicle.
From the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office:
Cruz subjected one of the victims to repeated attacks over a six-year period, beginning with inappropriate touching when she was 7 and escalating to rape.
The crimes went unreported until December 2015, when the girl’s mother learned of them through a third party and contacted Falls Township police.
Cruz’s assaults on the girl took place at various locations. In one instance, he picked her up as she walked home from school and raped her in his car in a nearby park. He then drove to a convenience store to buy her candy before taking her home.
After the assaults, Cruz coerced the girl to stay silent, saying that he would kill her mother if she told anyone what he had done.
The assault on the second girl took place in the back seat of a vehicle being driven by the victim’s mother. Cruz inappropriately touched the girl, 13, while attempting to force her to masturbate him. The girl told her mother about the assault after they got home, and said that she never again saw Cruz.
Falls Township police uncovered four other girls or young women who claimed Cruz assaulted them in Bucks County and Philadelphia between 1995 and 2012, Deputy District Attorney Kate Kohler said.
