For over a decade, Ricardo Crucian built a reputation as a gifted and valued physician who could relieve chronic pain when other physicians could not.
But then a series of alarming claims surfaced: Dozens of patients accused him of sexual assault during exams after he sometimes offered dangerously large amounts of medication to maintain control over them, prosecutors in the district attorney’s office said. of Manhattan at a trial this month. If they resisted, he withheld their prescriptions.
On Friday, a jury found Mr Cruciani guilty of 12 charges of predatory assault, sexual assault, rape and other crimes, after about three days of deliberation. Cruciani’s months-long trial revolved around the stories of six women he treated around 2012 at Beth Israel Medical Center, now known as Mount Sinai Beth Israel, in Union Square and in facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement Friday that Mr. Cruciani, 68, had violated the public’s trust in medical providers by abusing his power over patients and deliberately abusing their pain.
“Dr. Cruciani left in his wake six survivors who still suffer from debilitating illnesses, and now, years of trauma,” Bragg said. “While we can never undo his horrific actions, I hope this conviction is a measure of justice.”
Fred Sosinsky, a lawyer for Mr Cruciani, said in a statement Friday that he believed the court had made “a myriad of legal errors” and that he planned to appeal the verdict.
“It appears that the collective weight of six prosecutors, rather than a fair consideration of each of their problematic bills, carried the day,” Mr. Sosinsky said.
Mr Cruciani’s case is a strong example of how powerful medical professionals can take advantage of flawed surveillance systems and evade punishment for crimes.
Others have faced similar high-profile claims in recent years, including: Larry Nassarthe former physician of the US women’s gymnastics team, and Robert E. Andersonthe University of Michigan physician who died in 2008 and was accused of sexual abuse by hundreds of football players and other students.
Prosecutors and witnesses told jurors at the trial that Mr Cruciani’s advances often started gradually. He would hug patients tightly or run his fingers through their hair. But over time, his behavior escalated: The doctor groped women, kissed them without permission and forced them to engage in sexual acts or intercourse, prosecutors said.
The reports of Mr Cruciani’s misconduct date back more than 15 years. Sexual contact between a doctor and a patient is expressly prohibited by medical ethics. But administrators at several hospitals ignored reports of wrongdoing against Pennsylvania-based Mr. Cruciani and quietly let him take on new roles in other posts or states, according to allegations in several lawsuits.
He was arrested in 2017 on charges of indecent assault and indecent assault. But he avoided jail time after reaching a plea deal that required him to surrender his medical license and register as a low-level sex offender.
During his trial in Manhattan, prosecutors told jurors it was time to finally hold the doctor accountable. Over the years, prosecutors said, he followed a similar pattern in every abuse case: He built personal bonds with his patients, questioned them about their upbringing, relationships and personal lives, then began sexually assaulting them.
When the patients returned, he increased their dosages or started prescribing new drugs, becoming more brazen in his behavior, prosecutors said.
Some of his patients developed drug addictions. A woman told The New York Times last yearFor example, as her dependence on the drugs increased, Mr. Cruciani became more powerful, groping her, masturbating with her in rooms and forcing her to have oral sex with him.
In his closing arguments, Mr. Sosinsky, Mr. Cruciani’s lawyer, argued that his accusers were unreliable, The Associated Press reported:. “You should have every reason to doubt these allegations,” Mr. Sosinsky told the jurors.
Mr Cruciani will be sentenced on September 14 and could face life in prison. He is also still facing a state case in New Jersey and federal charges in Manhattan from seducing women to cross state lines for illegal sexual activity that could extend his time behind bars.
On Friday, several survivors praised the verdict and said it would help them continue to heal.
“To finally be vindicated, to finally know that this man will never hurt anyone else, to finally know that I might be able to sleep at night — it’s a great sense of relief,” said Hillary Tullin.
During the trial, Mrs. Tullin that she had sought the help of Mr. Cruciani about twenty years ago for chronic pain that other doctors found difficult to diagnose. But soon he started calling her home and telling her that he was thinking of her. Once, she said, he grabbed her face and kissed her violently.
She said she was “more than happy” at the verdict and cried when she first received the news. The emotional and mental wounds of her experiences will never go away, she said. But she hopes they will slowly fade from her mind.
“As much as I’ve been through trauma therapy and therapy,” she said, “I don’t think I could say I could start healing until I got this verdict. I can try to rebuild my life.”