Former Cross City Commissioner Sentenced to Federal Prison

GAINESVILLE, FL—On August 26, 2010, former Cross City Commissioner Marcellus Dawson, 74, will report to federal prison to begin serving a 27-month sentence for solicitation and receipt of bribes and conspiracy to commit that offense, announced United States Attorney Pamela C. Marsh, Northern District of Florida.

Dawson was convicted of those offenses following a five-day jury trial in federal district court in Gainesville earlier this year. Dawson came to the attention of the FBI when former Dixie County commissioners John Driggers and Alton Land, now serving federal prison sentences, told an undercover FBI agent posing as a land developer that Dawson was the person to “handle” things in Cross City. Dawson, the former police chief of Cross City, was videotaped accepting bribes from the undercover agent between October and December 2007. While accepting the money, Dawson agreed to do anything to help the developer including working to ensure city water would be made available for any new development, re-zoning property as necessary, and convincing other city officials to support the developer’s plans.

Chief United States District Court Judge Stephan P. Mickle announced the sentence yesterday at the conclusion of Dawson’s sentencing hearing in Gainesville. In addition to the prison sentence, Dawson will have to serve 24 months of supervised release following his release from custody. Dawson was beginning his fifth term as a city commissioner when he was arrested

Ms. Marsh praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement whose joint investigation led to the conviction and sentence. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory P. McMahon.