Former Montezuma County Undersheriff Robin Cronk was ordered to pay $7,415 in restitution as a result of an embezzlement conviction, a district court judge ruled Friday.<\/p>\n
However, Judge Todd Plewe ruled that unauthorized purchases, including firearms, made by Cronk with sheriff\u2019s office funds have been confiscated and will be sold at auction.<\/p>\n
Proceeds will be paid back to the sheriff\u2019s office and be deducted from the restitution amount owed, along with $703 already paid by Cronk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plea agreement agrees the defendant will pay restitution for charges filed,\u201d Plewe said. \u201cSheriff Dennis Spruell testified that Cronk was not authorized to make the purchases, and this has not been contradicted by anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a one-and-a-half hour hearing, Cronk\u2019s public defender, Katharine Whitney, attempted to show that Cronk\u2019s purchases routine equipment needs for officers.<\/p>\n
Whitney subpoenaed sheriff deputies Brad Ray and John Hancock to testify on the internal procedures for purchasing during Cronks term between 2011 and 2013. Cronk attended the hearing via speaker phone and didn\u2019t make a statement.<\/p>\n
The deputies said that under Cronk they each had a $300 allowance for equipment upgrades \u2013 uniforms, weapon apparatus, holsters, and other gear. They said Cronk had a buyer\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n
Whitney asked if a high-powered rifle bought by Cronk in 2012, valued at $3,000, could be used for research and development by the department.<\/p>\n
Special prosecutor Ceri Yoder, an assistant DA from the 7th District, objected to the line of questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bottom line is that Cronk pled guilty. The witnesses do not know if Cronk was authorized to buy the rifle,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n
Whitney responded that purchased equipment could be used on the job. Plewe rejected the argument, saying that Sheriff Dennis Spruell testified there was no use for it.<\/p>\n
Whitney argued the purchasing policy was \u201claissez faire\u201d during Cronk\u2019s term, and that his \u201cpurchases could have been within the policy and procedure\u201d at the time.<\/p>\n
Plewe again rejected the claim, responding that testimony showed Cronk \u201cobviously had too much discretion, but that is not a defense for restitution\u201d since Spruell didn\u2019t authorize the disputed purchases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defense is proffering the equipment can be used, but that is not the purpose of this court,\u201d he said. \u201cThis restitution makes the taxpayer whole and addresses the victim.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Purchases, guns will be auctioned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[133,907,13,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-courts","tag-embezzlement","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117338"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}