Former Montezuma County Undersheriff Robin Cronk is back behind bars, accused of using taxpayer money to purchase nearly $7,500 of personal items.
An 18-count indictment handed down by a Montezuma County grand jury includes 17 felony embezzlement charges and a lone charge of misdemeanor first-degree official misconduct.
The indictments are the first in the history of the grand jury, established earlier this summer, to be delivered on charges related to public corruption.
“The community-based grand jury found probable cause to indict Mr. Cronk on 18 counts,” said District Attorney Will Furse. “My office will proceed with their findings.”
Records show Cronk used a Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office credit card and checking account along with a Sheriff’s Office line of credit to pay for personal gunsmithing services, vehicle maintenance, holsters, generators, gun components, ammunition and firearms during a 26-month span.
The indictment alleges an “ongoing pattern” of public corruption by Cronk, revealing his personal items charged to taxpayers totaled $7,415.36.
Furse said Cronk was arrested in Arizona on Thursday in connection with the 18-count indictment. As of Thursday afternoon, it was unknown whether Cronk had posted bail.
Records show that Cronk’s personal spending spree started in February 2011 with separate credit-card purchases for two holsters totaling just less than $200. Records show his personal expenditures then halted for more than a year.
But in 2012, the indictment states, Cronk again splurged from May to July, purchasing three Honda generators using a Sheriff’s Office checking account. Purchased at Mesa Verde Motorsports, the generators totaled more than $2,300 and were all used by Cronk for his own personal use, according to court records.
Also in 2012, the indictment reveals that Cronk spent more than $600 for gunsmithing services on three occasions, purchased $56 of ammunition and spent nearly $400 for gun components in both 2012 and 2013. Records show Cronk made all of the purchases for “personal gain or benefit.”
This year, records show Cronk spent nearly $300 on four occasions for vehicle maintenance and improvements for a Chevrolet Trailblazer and a Mercedes Benz, vehicles belonging to Cronk.
Then, within weeks of, and in one instance just days before, Cronk’s forced resignation from the Sheriff’s Office in mid-June, the indictment alleges that he purchased two firearms totaling more than $3,550. Records show Cronk bought a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun in early May and a .308 semi-automatic rifle from a Miami, Fla., gun dealer June 6.
Last month, Cronk was arrested on a single count of felony embezzlement and a single count of official misconduct. The charges stemmed from a Colorado Bureau of Investigation probe into credit-card purchases.
Cronk is scheduled to appear before Chief District Court Judge Doug Walker on Aug. 20 for an arraignment hearing on the original charges.
