Dr. Ricardo Cruciani.Photo: Matt Rourke/AP Photo
New York City Police Department sources tell PEOPLE that 68-year-oldDr. Ricardo Crucianiwas found dead at about 6 a.m. Monday in the shower area of the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island.
The sources confirm that Cruciani hung himself.
On July 29, after a monthlong trial, Cruciani was found guilty on 12 counts of predatory sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape and other crimes.
Prosecutors had said he purposely got his patients addicted to powerful pain medications and later threatened to withhold their prescriptions unless they performed certain sexual acts.
Cruciani was set to be sentenced on Sept. 14. He had faced a possible life sentence.
Cruciani was also facing federal charges in an indictment that accused him of abusing multiple patients for more than 15 years at his offices in New York City, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The disgraced physician once chaired the neurology department at Philadelphia’s Drexel University.
Cruciani surrendered his medical license in 2017 as part of a plea deal in a separate case.
Six women he had treated in 2012 at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City — now known as Mount Sinai Beth Israel — accused Cruciani of developing personal relationships with them, and using his psychiatric training to ask personal questions.
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He also complimented their appearances and gave them uncomfortably tight hugs, prosecutors said at trial.
Terrie Phoenix, one of the victims who testified against Cruciani during his criminal trial,toldThe Washington Post: “I take comfort knowing he now faces another judge.”
source: people.com
