YOUNG CO. (KFDX/KJTL) — Former acting Olney Chief of Police Robert Michael Cross has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for threatening an individual at gunpoint.
Cross, 36, pleaded guilty in November to deprivation of rights under color of law before U.S. District Judge Reed C. O’Connor.
“This was a despicable abuse of power,” said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. “The public should be assured that we will not hesitate to hold the defendant accountable.”
In plea papers, Cross admitted that shortly after arresting two individuals for aggravated robbery offenses, he coerced them into engaging in conduct for his own personal benefit, promising to have the criminal cases against them dismissed if they complied with his demands.
About a month after the arrest, on Dec. 20, 2017, he took them out in his vehicle to eat dinner and catch a movie.
That evening, he brandished a pistol, threatening one of the individuals with bodily injury and willfully depriving him of the Constitutional right to be free from unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and the Texas Rangers conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Boudreau prosecuted the case.
