Records include 20 photos, scores of purchase invoices, a court order to hand over banking records, nearly two-dozen inmate emails, newspaper classified ads, grand jury transcripts and nine audio recordings, including one with Cronk.
On June 18, 2013, Colorado Bureau of Investigations agent Randy Watts interviewed Cronk for nearly 90 minutes. Near the close of the interview, Cronk realized he was under investigation when Watts suggested that he was involved with criminal activity.
Watts had asked numerous questions about purchased firearms and sheriff’s office weapon protocols when he turned the tables, asking if Cronk would be “willing to allow” agents to view his personal firearms.
“I can bring them to you,” said Cronk, hesitantly refusing the request.
“Any particular reason why?” Watts countered.
“I would be somewhat uncomfortable with that,” replied Cronk.
Watts then informed Cronk that authorities had obtained a search warrant for his residence.
“I’ll cooperate,” said Cronk.
Asked if he wanted to comment further, Cronk said he had receipts for every purchase he’d made as Montezuma County undersheriff.
“Why did it make it to the level that it’s a search warrant?” Cronk posed. “Why wasn’t this brought to my attention?”
Watts replied that authorities didn’t want to give anyone an opportunity to “tamper with evidence.”
“I don’t know you from anybody,” Watts said, adding, “I wanted to make sure that we do right by you and the citizens of Montezuma County that we do a thorough investigation.”
“No feathers were ruffled until you said the word criminal,” Cronk added.
In the waning two minutes of the recording, Cronk asked Watts to turn the audio recorder off, reiterating he had receipts.
“I guarantee you that there’s been nothing bought or transferred or done out of this office that we don’t have a receipt for,” said Cronk.
Watts closed the interview by telling Cronk they’d like his assistance in unlocking his home to execute the search warrant that day.
Office manager duped
During the CBI embezzlement probe, Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office manager Patsy Hill indicated to authorities that Cronk had duped her, saying that she assumed he had received approval from the sheriff for purchases over a $500 spending limit.
“I trusted my supervisor, I guess,” she told an agent.
Hill, who had held the position of office manager since 2002, added that Cronk’s spending habits were higher than normal compared with past administrations.
Hill said past administrations “knew more what was going on,” because sheriffs and undersheriffs discussed finances a lot more than Spruell and Cronk.
According to case evidence, Spruell, Cronk and Hill were listed as authorized signatures on a sheriff’s office contractual services funds checking account. A Dolores State Bank document reveals two signatures were required for a check over $100. The account was opened at Cronk’s request with a $23,310.94 deposit on Jan. 12, 2012.
Hill told CBI agents that prior administrations didn’t not have the contractual checking account, and contract monies were deposited into the general fund.
“The attitude was, the county can’t tell us what to do,” she told agents, referring to Spruell and Cronk.
At some point before June 11, 2013, county commissioners and Spruell agreed to cease all activity related to the fund.
$32 unveiled corruption
Former Montezuma County lead detective Ted Meador testified before a grand jury that he uncovered Cronk’s 26-month embezzlement scheme while searching for a receipt for a $32 part used to pull the bolt out of a sniper rifle.
“I started seeing a pattern and habits that I did not feel were ethically right,” testified Meador, a 26-year veteran of law enforcement. He testified for more than two-and-a-half hours before the grand jury on July 22, 2013.
“I started basically putting two and two together,” said Meador. “Started watching a little closer, started watching the bills. It became very apparent what was happening. Very apparent.”
Meador reportedly retired from the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office in February this year. County finance records show he received a severance payment of nearly $19,000.
MCSO reprimand policy
The case file included minutes from a command staff meeting on May 3, 2011. More than two years before Cronk was indicted, Spruell informed his deputies at the meeting of a change to policy and procedures regarding disciplinary issues.
Spruell told deputies a verbal warning - an “awareness statement” – would be issued for any infraction. Recorded on paper, it would be kept one year, then trashed and never mentioned again.
“It doesn’t go in the employee’s personnel file,” Spruell said.
A deputy receiving a second awareness statement for the same infraction would get a letter of reprimand. The next step would be days off.
“If we use the written awareness statements, it is less likely that an employee will repeat the infraction,” Spruell said.
At the same meeting, Spruell said Lexipol, an Aliso Viejo, Calif., company had been hired to provide new risk management policies at a cost of $10,000, payable out of Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) funds.
The sheriff’s office refused a request from The Cortez Journal on Jan. 29, 2014, to turn over internal affairs reports or evaluations in Cronk’s personnel file. Both fall under the state’s open records laws, known as sunshine laws.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com