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ROCHESTER — Charges related to raping a juvenile female have been filed in Olmsted County District court against a 30-year-old Owatonna man who is currently in prison for violating his probation in a previous case.
Ruben Anthony Michael Cortez is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct, using minors in a sexual performance and soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct, all felonies. He's accused of recording himself raping a juvenile female under 16-years-old multiple times in 2022.
Cortez is currently incarcerated in the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Faribault with an expected release date of Jan. 4, 2023. Cortez was required to register as a predatory offender for a Waseca County case were he pleaded guilty in 2015 to a count related to possessing child sexual abuse material.
According to his most recent complaint:
Cortez sent several sexual videos of himself to at least two different juveniles through Snapchat and raped one of the female juveniles several times earlier this year.
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The sexual assaults were reported to the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office in October 2022.
Cortez met the juveniles through Snapchat and plied at least one of them with vaping products before the first sexual assault in Byron.
"Cortez was very persistent in recording Victim even though she was reluctant," reads part of the complaint.
He also bought the juvenile a Nokia phone and set up an private email account for her.
Cortez initially denied raping the juvenile but ultimately told law enforcement about several incidents where he raped the juvenile and sent her explicit videos of himself.
The second female juvenile, who is believed to be from South Dakota, was involved in a group chat with Cortez and the other juvenile female. Cortez admitted to police that he also sent explicit images to her, as well.
