{"id":119883,"date":"2014-06-02T23:38:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-03T05:38:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-cbi-interview-spruell-knew-little-2\/"},"modified":"2014-06-02T23:38:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-03T05:38:23","slug":"the-cbi-interview-spruell-knew-little-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-cbi-interview-spruell-knew-little-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The CBI interview: Spruell knew little"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dennis
Dennis Spruell<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Weeks before placing his undersheriff, Robin Cronk, on administrative leave during a corruption probe, Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell told him to stop living a high life on the department\u2019s dime.<\/p>\n

Spruell revealed the warning during a 98-minute interview with Colorado Bureau of Investigations agent Randy Watts on June 19, 2013. Sealed during criminal proceedings, the audio became public after Cronk was sentenced last week to 30 days in jail.<\/p>\n

Spruell\u2019s warning surfaced as Watts asked Spruell if there had ever been any disciplinary issue involving his second in command.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had one,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cIt was a violation of a guy\u2019s constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronk was verbally reprimanded for the 2012 incident, Spruell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWas there anything above that?\u201d Watts asked.<\/p>\n

Spruell hesitated, and initially said no, but was quick to point out that weeks before the CBI interview, Cronk had upgraded his conference hotel room in Breckenridge at an additional cost of $30 per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to him and told him, Quit living on your champagne taste with our beer budget,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

The recording also indicated that Spruell was oblivious to Cronk\u2019s tax-dollar spending spree. Asked repeatedly by Watts about transactions that Cronk had made over a 26-month span, Spruell said he was unaware of the unauthorized purchases until notified by the CBI.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 11, 2011, as Spruell took command as sheriff, Cronk was tapped as undersheriff, with authority over the department\u2019s personnel and financial issues, including purchases, Spruell told Watts.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Cronk) OK\u2019d the bills to be paid,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cAnything over $500, I was to be made aware of. My bad \u2013 I didn\u2019t follow through with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell further stated that Cronk was responsible for making monthly deposits to cover department expenses, which averaged more than $100,000 a month. Spruell said he was rarely made aware of all individual financial decisions, even after Cronk purchased a $1,000 treadmill for the department during the summer of 2012.<\/p>\n

The interview then switched to the types of weapons issued to deputies and jailers, and Spruell told investigators he was unaware that Cronk had purchased an ArmaLite SAS sniper rifle from a Miami dealer for $2,900. Cronk was never a member of the department\u2019s sniper team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never authorized, and I wouldn\u2019t have authorized that,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

During the CBI interview, it was further revealed that $2,900 in cash was withdrawn from a sheriff\u2019s office bank account, and a money order was used to purchase the ArmaLite rifle. Spruell said his secretary informed him of the transaction the day before the CBI interview, the day that the CBI seized firearms from Cronk\u2019s residence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cI\u2019m embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spruell also told investigators that he was unaware that Cronk had used a department-issued credit card to purchase a Springfield .45 XD-S handgun from a Scottsdale dealer just days before the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have never, ever allowed that, ever,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I ask you why?\u201d Watts asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not part of our, uh, arsenal of weapons, and, um, I am not going to buy individual guns for people,\u201d Spruell said.<\/p>\n

Watts then explained to Spruell that Cronk had indicated during an interview the previous day that deputies could use their annual $500 clothing allowance to buy personal firearms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could be frank, that\u2019s bull\u2014-,\u201d Spruell said. \u201cNo one is allowed to buy personal property off a clothing allowance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watts also informed Spruell that Cronk had purchased holsters, magazine clips and ammunitions for non-issue firearms using department funds. Spruell said he didn\u2019t know about those purchases, saying, \u201cThis is the first I\u2019ve ever heard about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other purchases raised by Watts during the 98-minute interview included receipts for auto tire service, a handmade rack for an ATV, two generators for a fifth-wheel trailer and a Canadian flag and flag pole, to name a few.<\/p>\n

Spruell again said he was unaware of the purchases. Cronk had told Watts that he had discussed the matters with Spruell.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheriff warned of \u2018champagne taste\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[907,993,60],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-119883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-embezzlement","tag-investigation","tag-montezuma-county"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119883","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=119883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119883"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=119883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}