A Carmel Valley man has been charged with exposing himself to 10 girls walking home from school at Torrey Pines High School and two other schools.
Rene Cruz-Crupetillo, 27, has pleaded not guilty to 24 counts of indecent exposure, lewd conduct in public, and child annoyance which are all misdemeanor offenses that allegedly occurred from October 2023 to May 29, 2024.
A Torrey Pines High School girl memorized the man’s approximate license plate number on May 13 and she and her parent reported it to police.
A girl walking home from Solana Pacific Elementary School took photos of the white sedan on May 29 where a man was exposing himself around 3 p.m., according to court records. She got the license plate number in the photos.
All 10 girls told police the man would be parked and left a door open, displaying his genitals and often would be masturbating. All of them fled at that point, and the man never had any physical contact with them.
Cruz-Crupetillo denies he is that man as part of his not-guilty plea in San Diego Superior Court. On Nov. 6, Judge Blair Soper allowed him to remain free on his own recognizance in a supervised release under some conditions.
Cruz-Crupetillo must stay 100 yards away from all schools in San Diego County and must not associate with minors, the judge ruled. He must attend self-help meetings if available, records say.
His next hearing is set for Jan. 3, 2025, when a trial date may be set for later in 2025. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
Because the charges are all misdemeanors, the maximum penalty is not likely to exceed one year in jail if Cruz-Crupetillo is convicted.
San Diego Police issued a press release on Nov. 6 announcing the arrest and it said they had been searching for a man who had exposed himself to 17 girls over the last 10 years.
However, the statute of limitations bars prosecution for offenses that occurred more than two years ago. All of the alleged offenses in the 24-count complaint occurred in 2023 and 2024.
Girls from the third school mentioned in the complaint were from Carmel Valley Middle School. All of them described the offender as older than he is, with the general age of 30 to 50, according to an arrest warrant declaration.
Most of the girls said the man appeared to be watching a video on his cell phone while he was masturbating.
After Cruz-Crupetillo was arrested, police searched his phone and determined his phone was “hitting off cell towers within the vicinity of the crime to an accuracy degree of roughly one block in most cases,” the police affidavit says.
Cruz-Crupetillo did not have a valid driver’s license, the affidavit says, because he was convicted of reckless driving in a DUI case from North County.
