JENNA-LEY HARRISON
The last three defendants in a
Cherryville police scandal from 2012 were sentenced to prison today in federal
court.
Frankie Dellinger, 42, Wesley
Clayton Golden, 41, and Mark Ray Hoyle, 40, will each spend at least the next
year and a half behind bars for their roles in transporting stolen goods and
cash through the area multiple times in 2012, according to the United States
Attorney’s Office in the western district of North Carolina.
Dellinger, who worked with the
Cherryville Police Department and Gaston County Sheriff’s Office throughout his
nearly 20-year career in law enforcement, received a three-year prison sentence
in the case followed by supervised release for two years, the U.S. Attorney’s
Office said.
Hoyle, a Cherryville resident
and civilian accomplice who also claimed to be a Gaston County Sheriff’s deputy
in the conspiracy, received 20 months prison time and two years of court
supervision.
Lastly, U.S. District Court
Judge Robert Conrad, Jr. sentenced Golden to 21 months in prison and one year
of supervised release, federal officials said.
The Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) targeted Dellinger after learning he may have been involved
in illegal activity.
Federal agents disguised
themselves as criminals and worked alongside the seasoned cop and his
co-conspirators to transport stolen property on tractor-trailers through Gaston
County.
The trucks contained what the
convicts believed was more than $400,000 in cash proceeds from the sale of
goods along with nearly $160,000 in other stolen property, federal officials
said.
Dellinger and his
co-conspirators used their badges to protect the goods during transport and
accepted cash bribes on certain occasions, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Each of the three men pleaded
guilty in January 2013 to conspiracy to transport and/or receive stolen
property and conspiracy to extort under color of official right, according to
the release.
Hoyle and Dellinger
additionally pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy.
Three other individuals
involved in a related area conspiracy were sentenced in November, federal
officials said.
Cherryville patrol officers
Casey Justin Crawford, 34, and David Paul Mauney, III, 25, received 33 and 18
months in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
John Ashley Hendricks, 49, a
second civilian accomplice and Cherryville resident, received two years of
probation in the case.
All defendants have been in
federal custody since October 2012, when the FBI raided the local police
department.
The FBI and State Bureau of
Investigation (SBI) jointly conducted the investigation.
Michael Savage, of the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, served as lead prosecutor in the case
