A prominent neurologist convicted of a dozen counts of rape and sexual assault last month died on Rikers Island early Monday morning, the DOC confirmed.

Ricardo Cruciani, 68, was the 12th Rikers-related death of the year.

Cruciani was being held at the Eric M. Taylor Center and died around 6:30 a.m., the city's Department of Correction said in a press release..

He was awaiting sentencing after being convicted in Manhattan criminal court of 12 counts of rape, attempted rape, criminal sex acts and sexual abuse on July 29, according to court records. He was remanded to Rikers Island after his conviction after previously being out on $1 million bond, the records show. He was originally charged in 2018. His sentencing had been scheduled for Sept. 14.

The department didn't immediately release any information about the circumstances surrounding his death, but Cruciani's lawyer, Fred Sosinsky, said Cruciani should have been under suicide watch and in protective custody, per a court order at his conviction on July 29.

"Neither of these conditions were, to our knowledge, ever complied with. Had they been, we would not be having this terrible discussion," Sosinsky said in a statement, calling for an "immediate and objective investigation" into his client's death and "why in the world Corrections failed to follow the Court's orders."

Prosecutors said Cruciani groomed vulnerable patients by overprescribing pain killers, sometimes to treat serious injuries from car wrecks and other accidents, according to the Associated Press.

Six women testified the sexual abuse often occurred behind closed doors during appointments in 2013 at a Manhattan medical center, where the doctor would expose himself and demand sex, the Associated Press reported.

The DOC said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is investigating the cause of his death. As in all DOC custody deaths, the state attorney general's office and the city's Department of Investigation will also launch inquiries into Cruciani's death.

"I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of this person in custody," DOC Commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement on Monday. "We will conduct a preliminary internal review to determine the circumstances surrounding his death."

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones," Molina added.

Cruciani’s death came a month after the DOC and the Legal Aid Society confirmed that another inmate, Michael Lopez, died at the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island.

Also last month, four Rikers guards were charged in the Bronx for failing to intervene in the 2019 hanging death of Nicolas Feliciano. The Board of Correction, the oversight body for the department, said video showed Feliciano hanging for seven minutes and 51 seconds, as more than six correction officers stood by without intervening.

All four of the guards charged with reckless endangerment and official misconduct pleaded not guilty and were released without bail. Two had already resigned in February, but the other two remain employed by the DOC.

The DOC recorded Monday's death as the 11th death of a person in custody so far this year, but the department's count does not include the death of a detainee who attempted suicide while in custody, then passed away days after a judge granted him passionate release.

In response to Cruciani’s death, Brooklyn Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon — who is running for Congress in a Lower Manhattan and western Brooklyn district — called Rikers a “modern day penal colony.” Simon’s Brooklyn Assembly colleague Latrice Walker said “despite the heinous crimes, he was entitled to safety behind bars.”

“For too many, Rikers is a death sentence,” Brooklyn Council Member Lincoln Restler tweeted.