NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A former pain management doctor was charged Wednesday with intentionally making sure several of his patients were addicted to opioids, so they’d become dependent on him before he allegedly sexually abusing some over a 15-year period.
According to the indictment, Ricardo Cruciani, 63, of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, used his ability to prescribe or withhold pain medication to entice multiple victims to travel to his medical offices in New York City; Hopewell, New Jersey; and Philadelphia “to subject them to unlawful sexual abuse.”
Prosecutors said the abuse started sometime around 2002 and continued through 2017.
“Doctors like the defendant take an oath to do no harm. It is difficult to imagine conduct more anathema to that oath than exploiting patients’ vulnerability in order to sexually abuse them,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
Williams said Cruciani would develop personal relationships with the victims to gain their trust and would intentionally prescribe them highly addictive medications that caused them to “become dependent on him as he engaged in a course of increasingly abusive conduct.”
The indictment alleges Cruciani knew that his patients suffered from “severe if not excruciating and debilitating pain that significantly impacted their lives.” It added that other pain management doctors would “not prescribe the same combinations and quantities of pain medication as Cruciani.”
“The alleged pattern of abuse in this case is outrageous,” Williams said in a statement.
In 2017, Cruciani admitted that he assaulted seven patients in 2016, while he was chairman of Drexel University’s neurology department. He took a plea deal that allowed him to serve seven years’ probation, register as a sex offender and forfeit his medical license, according to The Associated Press.
Prosecutors said Cruciani carried out his alleged crimes in hospitals, medical offices, hotels and apartments in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
During his career, Cruciani worked at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Drexel University and Capital Institute for Neurosciences.
Cruciani is charged with five counts of enticing and inducing individuals to travel interstate to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors ask that anyone who believes they may be a victim of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Cruciani contact the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York at (646) 372-0364.