A former nurse for Rush University Medical Center has been arrested on federal charges alleging he harassed and cyberstalked a man he met on the dating app Grindr, disseminating nude photos of the victim online and setting up phony profiles that led to hundreds of men going to the victim’s home seeking sex.
When an internal review by the hospital led to Kevin Cruz’s firing last year, he turned his sights on the lead investigator, sending her “unwanted, repeated, and concerning electronic messages” in which he “made reference to being a danger to himself and possibly others,” a 16-page criminal complaint made public in U.S. District Court on Friday alleged.
Cruz, 32, of Oak Park, was charged with sending electronic communications with the intent to harass and intimidate. He was arrested by the FBI at his home on Wednesday and is being held without bond pending a detention hearing Monday, court records show.
His attorney, Gal Pissetzky, told the Tribune that he will be seeking Cruz’s release, saying he is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Pissetzky also said that the allegations were one-sided and that “other evidence will come to light” as the case goes forward that will “negate some of the allegations” being made by the victims.
Cruz, meanwhile, has a lengthy history of alleged stalking that has led to other people taking out orders of protection against him, court records show. In one case filed in Cook County Circuit Court in 2011, a Chicago man accused Cruz of violating a protective order nearly 300 times in less than a year, including by impersonating the victim in threatening texts to the victim’s then-girlfriend.
“I am tired of this! I will kill u if you don’t leave me alone,” one text Cruz allegedly sent to the victim’s girlfriend read, according to court records.
According to the federal complaint, Cruz met his latest victim, an Oak Park personal trainer identified only as Victim-1, on Grindr in August 2021. The victim allegedly sent Cruz nude photos, but later told him he was not interested in pursuing a romantic relationship, prompting Cruz’s campaign of harassment, the complaint alleged.
That December, the victim discovered that the nude photos he’d sent to Cruz had been used to make a phony profile on Grindr and other dating sites saying he was seeking sexual relationships, according to the complaint. The person behind the account communicated with “various users on those dating websites to arrange purported meetings at Victim-1′s house for sex or sexual favors,” the complaint alleged.
Over the next 14 months, hundreds of men showed up at Victim-1′s residence in response to the profiles, sometimes many in one day, the complaint alleged. When the victim spoke to some of the men, they said they’d been told to enter his house without knocking, and that if he told them to stop, “it was part of role playing and to continue to try to have sex with (him).”
As a result, the victim moved out of his Oak Park apartment and moved to his parents’ home in another suburb, but men kept showing up there as well, eventually forcing local police to post a marked squad car outside the residence to stop people from trying to get in, the complaint alleged.
The charges alleged that Cruz also sent the victim’s mother text messages from “spoofed” numbers depicting men having oral sex and claiming that the victim had killed himself.
“Holy (expletive),” one text from April 2022 read, according to the complaint. “(Victim-1) rly killed him(self). Just posted on blog hanging himself and taking meds. U got what u wanted … 5 police cars and ambulance to take his body.”
After Cruz was fired from Rush last year, in addition to harassing the hospital’s investigator, he allegedly made “rapid and successive contacts” with another Rush employee and repeatedly tried to contact that person through other staff, sometimes while they were treating patients, the complaint alleged.
Cruz’s former colleagues became so worried over his repeated overtures seeking their support in fighting his termination that both the hospital and the administrator who’d fired him filed for an emergency workplace restraining order against Cruz, according to the complaint.
Victim-1 also filed a request for an order of protection in Cook County in January 2022 that was granted and is still in effect, according to county court records.
As part of the FBI probe into the alleged harassment, Victim-1 reached out to Cruz earlier this month and asked to meet. The two agreed to meet on May 5 at a Starbucks in Villa Park, where the victim wore a hidden video camera while agents kept the restaurant under surveillance, according to the charges.
During the discussion, 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 the complaint.
Cruz allegedly replied, “It was all me. Is that what you want to hear?”
Later in the conversation, the victim asked how many times Cruz had impersonated him online.
“I don’t know. A lot,” Cruz allegedly replied. “ … I want to apologize to your family, if you’ll let me.”
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As they left the Starbucks and approached the victim’s car, the victim pointed to where someone had scrawled the word “HO” on the vehicle with a key. “You keyed my car?” he asked.
After allegedly admitting he had done so, Cruz tried to block Victim-1 from getting into the vehicle, the complaint alleged.
Ultimately, agents contacted local police, who followed Cruz back to his own car. When officers tried to ask Cruz what was going one, he “would not provide his name or any additional information,” the complaint alleged.
Even after the May 5 meeting, the harassment continued, with Cruz repeatedly sending text messages Victim-1 from “spoofed” numbers. Cruz sent flowers and food to his home, and left handwritten notes on his car begging for forgiveness, according to the complaint.
“I did drive by your house earlier to check in the gifts and arrangements,” Cruz texted to the victim last weekend, according to the complaint. “Saw you grab the edible arrangements. You were in backyard.”
According to the complaint, on Tuesday, the day before Cruz’s arrest, police followed him to the gym where the victim worked and watched as he placed a final note on the victim’s car.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
