A Long Island man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a 32-year-old woman he met while both were patients at a hospital in Port Jefferson in 2023.

Rupert Cruz, 65, of Coram, pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree rape for assaulting the woman in June 2023 after driving her home from St. Charles Hospital, where they had both been discharged.

“This sexual predator was 63 years old and had a prior forcible rape conviction and multiple failures to register as a sex offender when he targeted, drugged and violently attacked this woman,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement.

According to prosecutors, Cruz served time in prison after a 1987 conviction for rape, sexual abuse and attempted coercion. He was

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