Man pleads guilty to impersonating cop, attempted assault on teen The Associated Press GRAHAM, N.C. -- A Burlington man was sentenced to at least six years in prison for impersonating a police officer, telling a teenage girl to get in his car and attempting to rape her. Ismael Rodriguez Cruz, 26, pleaded guilty in Superior Court Monday to seven charges, including first-degree kidnapping, attempted second-degree rape, impersonating an officer and resisting an officer. Cruz was sentenced to 73 to 97 months. A prosecutor said the 16-year-old victim and her boyfriend borrowed a car from a friend and left a skating rink on the night of Feb. 8, said Assistant District Attorney Anand Ramaswamy. Cruz pulled alongside their car in an apartment complex parking lot. "They asked him if he was a police officer," Ramaswamy said. "He replied he was. He said he would have to take (the girl) to the police station." Cruz told the couple that he would arrest the girl and call her parents if she did not come with him, Ramaswamy said. He then drove the girl to a parking lot on Texas Avenue and assaulted her, according to the prosecutor. The girl managed to escape from the car and ran to a nearby house. Ramaswamy said Cruz drove back to the parking lot where the girl's boyfriend waited and "told them this was all a misunderstanding and he was free to leave." The boyfriend gave a description of Cruz to police, who found him hiding under a bed in a nearby apartment. After sentencing, Ramaswamy said Cruz is an illegal alien and will be deported after he serves his time. Defense attorney Robert Sharpe did not address the judge during sentencing. Information from: Times-News, http://www.thetimesnews.com http://newsobserver.com/news/nc/ncwire_news/story/1559043p-7749899c.html 8/26/2004 1:12:40 PM
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