STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 A Staten Island man charged with assaulting and later kidnapping a woman known to him will undergo treatment in mental health court as a means to resolve the case. <\/p>\n
Jason Cruz, 20, of Brook Street in Tompkinsville, was indicted in November of this year on charges that included first-degree robbery and violating an order of protection, stemming from two incidents in October. <\/p>\n
At his arraignment hearing last month in state Supreme Court, St. George, Justice Alexander B. Jeong ordered he be held without bail. <\/p>\n
On Thursday, Cruz accepted an offer from the district attorney\u2019s office in which he would plead guilty to a lesser count of first-degree criminal contempt. <\/p>\n
In exchange for his plea, his case will be moved to mental health court and he is scheduled to undergo substance use treatment. The case will remain in mental health court for 12 to 18 months as an alternative to incarceration. <\/p>\n
If Cruz completes the treatment and avoids further arrest, the case will be considered resolved. If not, he would be scheduled for sentencing on the criminal contempt charge, which carries a minimum sentence of one year in jail. <\/p>\n
Alleged assault, kidnapping in public locations<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the first incident occurred on the night of Oct. 4 at 1 Richmond Terrace near the ferry terminal in St. George. Cruz punched the female victim multiple times in the stomach and stated: \u201cYou\u2019re lucky I can\u2019t kill you b—-.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second incident, according to a criminal complaint, occurred on the morning of Oct. 15 along St. Mary\u2019s Avenue in Rosebank. <\/p>\n
The defendant was accused of taking the victim\u2019s phone, walking away and stating \u201cfollow me, otherwise you won\u2019t get your phone.\u201d He led the victim to his home, the complaint continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant\u2019s above-described conduct caused (the complainant) to fear for her physical safety, as well as experience annoyance and alarm,\u201d read the complaint. <\/p>\n
At the time of the incidents, the defendant had a prior conviction for criminal contempt after an incident involving a member of his own family, according to court documents. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.\u2014 A Staten Island man charged with assaulting and later kidnapping a woman known to him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-61914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}