{"id":122792,"date":"2013-11-27T20:30:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-28T03:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cronk-trial-set-for-april\/"},"modified":"2013-11-27T20:30:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T03:30:35","slug":"cronk-trial-set-for-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cronk-trial-set-for-april\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronk trial set for April"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A former Montezuma County undersheriff charged with 17 felony counts of embezzlement will go to trial next spring.<\/p>\n

Projected to last two weeks, the trial for Robin Cronk was set on Thursday, Nov. 21, by District Court Judge Todd Plewe. During last week\u2019s proceedings, Plewe also denied a defense motion to modify Cronk\u2019s bond stipulations.<\/p>\n

Public defender Katharine Whitney requested that her client, now a resident of Phoenix, Ariz., be allowed to travel across the contiguous 48 states for a job within the transportation industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason Mr. Cronk wouldn\u2019t come to his court appearances,\u201d Whitney proclaimed.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Will Furse opposed lifting the bond stipulations, adding it would provide \u201cspecial treatment\u201d that he is not willing to concede.<\/p>\n

Cronk previously had permission to travel throughout the Four Corners, an already \u201csomewhat unusual\u201d bond condition, Plewe replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very uncomfortable with Mr. Cronk traveling to all 48 states,\u201d Plewe said. \u201cHe can seek employment in four states already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plewe explained that bond stipulations are designed to restrict personal liberties. Arizona authorities have apprehended Cronk while out on bond, Plewe added.<\/p>\n

Whitney said that she intends to file multiple motions in coming weeks. Future requests include disqualifying Plewe from presiding over the case, disqualify Furse from prosecuting the charges, filing a change of venue demand and renewing a gag order against the Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office, she said.<\/p>\n

Those motions will be heard at 9 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2014. The trial date is April 21, 2014.<\/p>\n

A Montezuma County grand jury indicted Cronk on 17 counts of felony embezzlement charges in August.<\/p>\n

The alleged public corruption stems from his abuse of multiple sheriff\u2019s office accounts for personal gunsmithing services, vehicle maintenance, holsters, generators, gun components, ammunition and firearms over a 26-month span starting in February 2011. Records show Cronk left taxpayers holding a $7,415.36 bill.<\/p>\n

Cronk was tapped as undersheriff in January 2011. He was forced to resign the post in June due to the public corruption allegations. He is currently free on a $1,500 bond.<\/p>\n

Cronk was declared indigent and eligible to receive court appointed counsel despite earning more than $6,000 a month as undersheriff.<\/p>\n

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

Ex-undersheriff faces 17 charges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":122793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6363],"tags":[75,188,907,13,237],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-122792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-news","tag-court-preliminary","tag-dolores-star","tag-embezzlement","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county-government"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122792","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=122792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122792"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=122792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}