Bobby Cruz, Sexually Exploiting Children, Illinois 2011

A former Des Plaines man, Bobby Cruz, 34, was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison for sexually molesting nine children and producing child pornography with seven of those victims, as well as creating pornographic images of two other victims whom he sexually exploited.

The crimes were committed in Illinois between an unknown start date and November 2011, when Cruz was arrested.

Cruz pleaded guilty last September to one count of interstate travel to engage in sex with a minor and two counts of producing child pornography, resolving separate federal cases that were brought in both the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois.

At an emotional sentencing hearing yesterday afternoon, two victims and a parent of six other victims told U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr., about the traumatic damage that Cruz inflicted upon their lives.

“The harm to the victims is incalculable,” Judge Dow said in imposing the maximum sentence under the terms of Cruz’s plea agreement. The “victims are the most vulnerable in society” and Cruz’s crimes were “brazen beyond belief,” the judge added.

Cruz was ordered to remain under court supervision for life, and he must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence. There is no parole in the federal prison system.

“The defendant has imposed a life sentence on each one of these victims,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennie Levin argued in seeking the 50-year sentence.

No amount of prison time seems sufficient for the unspeakable trauma Cruz inflicted on his innocent victims, said Gary J. Hartwig, Special Agent-in-Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Chicago.

The investigation of Cruz began just before he was arrested when Cruz traded images of child pornography with an undercover law enforcement officer. Ultimately, agents seized 300 videos and images of homemade child pornography from Cruz’s residence, along with 1,130 additional videos and images that he possessed.

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