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