A Puerto Rican national has been arrested and charged with the 2007 alleged rape of a woman in a van in the parking lot near a Mechanic Street bar.

Juan Luis Hernandez Cruz, 31, currently of 214 E. Spruce St., West Hazleton, is charged with two counts of rape by forcible compulsion, and one count each of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion and kidnapping to facilitate a felony, all first-degree felonies; indecent assault by forcible compulsion, a first-degree misdemeanor; and false imprisonment, a second-degree misdemeanor, court records stated.

According to court records, between Sept. 8 and 9, 2007, in the parking lot between two businesses on Mechanic Street, Cruz and another man forced a woman into a van where Cruz raped her.

Court records allege the other man was the victim’s estranged husband. He held her down by her neck, pushing hard enough that she nearly lost consciousness, and put his knee on her chest while Cruz took her clothes off, performed a sex act on her and then raped her, the records read.

The victim went to Bradford Regional Medical Center and reported the rape, and police were notified. Police seized the van as part of the investigation. Police interviewed a group of men Cruz had been with that night, and were told Cruz didn’t speak fluent English. Cruz told one of the men to tell police he had been with “that girl” in the van, court records read.

The victim’s estranged husband was arrested, prosecuted and served a state prison sentence for his part in the assault, police noted.

DNA testing was done on evidence collected, and eventually was matched to Cruz.

He was arraigned early Saturday morning before District Judge Rich Luther and remanded to jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.

He is scheduled to appear in McKean County Central Court Nov. 17.