Man Who Sexually Assaulted Friend's Daughter Sentenced In Monmouth County

FREEHOLD, NJ — A Howell Township man has been sentenced to 41½ years for repeatedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl over about a year, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said.

John K. Cruz, 54, was sentenced Tuesday by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Richard W. English, in the series of sexual assaults that happened in 2021 and 2022, Prosecutor Raymond S. Santiago said.

Cruz must serve at least 85 percent of the first 40 years of his term before becoming eligible for parole, under the provisions of New Jersey’s No Early Release Act.

The girl told her mother in October 2022 that Cruz, a longtime family friend, had sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions, at his home in Howell and at the victim's home in Marlboro, the prosecutor's office said. Investigators arrested him a short time later, prosecutors said, and he was indicted in October 2023.

Cruz was convicted in a bench trial before English last fall on charges of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, along with fourth-degree stalking, which resulted from Cruz secretly placing a camera in the victim’s family home, prosecutors said.

The 40-year sentence applied to the aggravated sexual assault charge, while the other counts were merged into the sentence, with the exception the stalking charge, prosecutors said. Cruz received an 18-month term, to be served consecutively, for that charge.

After becoming eligible for parole, at which time he would be in his late 80s, Cruz would have to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and be subject to parole supervision for life.