The man who killed himself on Rikers Island Monday morning was a disgraced Manhattan neurologist who was facing up to 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of raping his patients last month, jailhouse sources said.
Ricardo Cruciani, 68, was found unresponsive in a shower with a sheet wrapped around his neck at the Eric M. Taylor Center around 6 a.m., sources and the Department of Correction said.
Cruciani had just entered the problem-plagued jail complex two weeks ago on July 29, after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of manipulating and abusing six of his patients at Beth Israel Medical Center, and later at facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
He was due to be sentenced on Sept. 15.
Sources claimed Cruciani was on suicide watch, and that the officer assigned to keep tabs on him had left their post, a claim the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association denied.
“Typically, when an inmate enters our custody for the first time, facing a serious high profile crime, they are put under suicide watch, which requires an additional officer to supervise that inmate,” Benny Boscio, president of COBA, said in a statement.
“The fact that this inmate wasn’t put under suicide watch raises serious questions. Our officers were not responsible for this tragic incident, which was clearly a managerial failure.”
The DOC and Correctional Health Services, which determines if inmates should be placed on suicide watch, didn’t immediately confirm whether Cruciani was in general population or comment on COBA’s statement.
Cruciani’s attorney said she wasn’t aware of his death when reached by The Post Monday morning, and didn’t return multiple requests for comment.
The sick doc was arrested more than four years ago after at least 17 patients came forward to accuse him of misconduct.
He had been free on a $1 million bond as the case played out in court, including during his monthlong trial, but was remanded to Rikers following his conviction.
At trial, prosecutors described Cruciani as “evil in a white coat” and told jurors he was “a small, devious man who could have used his highly intelligent ways for good instead of bad.”
For more than a decade, prosecutors said, Cruciani treated patients with rare diseases and chronic pain and then got them hooked on highly addictive pain medication so he could coerce them into performing sexual acts in exchange for the drugs.
“You will see that each had a history, a demeanor, a broken past that made them his perfect victim,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey said in her opening statement.
“He built trust in each of them. He pathologically got to know their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities.”
Cruciani was convicted on 12 counts of third-degree rape, sexual abuse, attempted rape, predatory sexual assault and criminal sexual act.
Hillary Tullin, who said that Cruciani orally raped her while treating her for a debilitating pain condition in the early 2000s, lamented that his many victims now won’t have the chance to address him in court during a sentencing hearing.
“It is a sad day for all of his victims who will never get to have finality and never have the chance to address the defendant to tell him directly how his crimes greatly impacted their lives,” said Tullin, who testified at trial.
“His decision today was in no way a sign of remorse or guilt but purely an act of self preservation. He simply could not stand facing the rest of his life behind bars.”
Tullin said previously that she began seeing Cruciani at Beth Israel beginning in 2002 for a regional pain disorder and soon became dependent on his care.
In 2005, he forcibly kissed her during one of their sessions and while she tried to stay away from him after the attack, she came back to his office several weeks later when her pain again became impossible to manage.
When she returned to his office, Tullin said that Cruciani began orally raping her and forcing himself on her orally in exchange for the medications that she needed.
“There was nothing consensual about it,” Tullin said at the time.
“When you’re being held in a locked office with someone for three hours, and you know that that person holds your health in his hands, you make a decision. And my decision was that I wanted to be able to walk again, I wanted to be able to use my arms and legs.”
Jeffrey P. Fritz, an attorney who represents 30 of Cruciani’s victims across various states, including Tullin, told The Post his clients feel “cheated of justice.”
However, one of those women, Terrie Phoenix, said justice is coming to Cruciani, one way or another.
“I take comfort knowing he now faces another judge,” she said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also didn’t return a request for comment.
Cruciani’s death marks the 12th in-custody death at the DOC so far this year, a 50% increase from the eight fatalities seen by this time last year.
His is the ninth suspected or confirmed suicide to happen on the DOC’s watch since January 2021, and is the third so far this year.
Louis Molina, the commissioner of the DOC, said the death is under investigation.
“I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of this person in custody. We will conduct a preliminary internal review to determine the circumstances surrounding his death. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones,” Molina said.
The DOC has been in the throes of a crisis as it grapples with a ballooning jail population and staffing shortages caused by a surge in retirements, resignations and chronic absenteeism.
Detainees and people serving out sentences on Rikers Island are frequently left unsupervised because there aren’t enough staff to ensure all posts are manned at all hours.
The chronic issues at the troubled jail complex led Manhattan prosecutors to threaten a federal takeover of the facility earlier this year, forcing the DOC to submit a 30-page plan showing how they’ll rectify the problems. In June, Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain accepted the plan, and gave the agency until November to put it into action.
In late June, Adams held a victorious press conference on Rikers Island, days after two detainees died within a 48-hour period, and told reporters “I am truly pleased with what I’m seeing” in a full-throated defense of the agency.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.