Michael D. Cruz

A man serving time in state prison is accused of sexually assaulting a Butler County girl in 2016.

Butler Township police recently charged Michael D. Cruz, 27, an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Houtzdale in Clearfield County.

The police investigation began Dec. 15, 2016, a day after a then-13-year-old girl told a teacher at Butler Intermediate High School she was sexually assaulted at an apartment in Lyndora.

The girl was subsequently interviewed by an official with the Butler County Child Advocacy Center. A police detective observed the interview.

Police said the child, who is now 17, identified Cruz as her assailant. She described the alleged assault and recounted “grabbing (the defendant) by the elbow and telling him to stop,” according to court documents.

On Friday, police charged Cruz with statutory sexual assault, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault without consent and aggravated indecent assault of a child less than 16 years old, all felonies.

Additionally, he is charged with indecent assault without consent and indecent assault of a child less than 16 years old, both misdemeanors.

Cruz's preliminary hearing was not immediately scheduled. Online court records did not indicate if he has an attorney.

Butler Township Police Chief John Hays noted Wednesday the reason it took so long to file charges, in part, was because investigators had to wait for DNA analysis and the results of other lab tests.

Cruz is currently in state prison for separate aggravated assault convictions in Venango County Court stemming from two criminal cases filed by Franklin police in 2011.

In 2012, court records showed, he was sentenced in both cases to a total of 4 to 10 years in prison.