Miles Cruz appears in court for his sentencing March 3, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — A man’s conviction for an attack on a Brown County recreational trail has been upheld.
A state appeals court ruled police did not violate Miles Cruz’s Fourth Amendment rights when they collected DNA samples from him.
Police took samples from under Cruz’s fingernails and the inside of his cheek. The results tied him to the 2021 attack on a woman and her baby on the East River Trail in De Pere.
Though officers did not have a warrant, the court ruled Cruz “voluntarily consented” to the swabs by giving police ” affirmative words and gestures” when he was asked for them.
Cruz, now 20, pleaded no contest to four counts in connection with the attack: sexual assault, kidnapping, strangulation and suffocation, and recklessly endangering safety. A count of attempted homicide was dismissed as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced to 42 1/2 years in prison. Before he made the plea deal, his lawyers argued Cruz didn’t give consent, but Judge Tammy Jo Hock rejected the motion.
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