A West Virginia man has been acquitted of allegations of rape after a three-day trial in McKean County Court.
Juan Luis Hernandez-Cruz, 32, of Morgantown, W.Va., had been accused of participating in a forcible kidnapping and rape in 2007.
Cruz was represented at trial by Ridgway attorney John Thomas and prosecuted by a senior deputy attorney general, L. Todd Goodwin. The judge for the trial was Senior Judge William Morgan.
The McKean County District Attorney’s office turned the case over to the attorney general’s office earlier this month.
According to court records, between 11 p.m. Sept. 8 and midnight Sept. 9, 2007, a woman was forced into a van in a parking lot between two businesses on Mechanic Street in Bradford.
One man — the woman’s estranged husband — held her down, putting his knee on her chest and a hand across her throat, sometimes applying pressure to her throat and nearly causing her to lose consciousness. While he held her down, Cruz allegedly performed a sex act on her, then raped her, court records read.
He was found not guilty of those charges on Wednesday.
Cruz has been incarcerated in McKean County Jail since Nov. 5, 2016.
The victim’s estranged husband was previously convicted of charges for his role in the incident, and served a sentence in the state prison, according to court records.
