An Alabama sheriff who sparked outrage earlier this year when it emerged that he legally pocketed public funds allocated towards inmates’ food and used the money to buy a beach house is now being investigated for allegedly having sex with underage girls during alcohol and drug-fueled parties in the early 1990s.
One of the alleged victims, 41-year-old Mary Elizabeth Cross, revealed to Al.com during a series of interviews back in May that she had sex with Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin on four separate occasions in 1992, when she was 15 years old and he was 29 and serving as commander of the sheriff’s Office’s drug task force.
The age of consent in Alabama is 16.
Cross told the paper that she did not rebuff Entrekin’s advances so she could get free drugs.
She also claimed she witnessed him and another man take turns holding down and raping her underage friend during one of his ‘wild’ parties in his camper, dubbed ‘the lake house,’ parked on a piece of lakefront property in Rainbow City, which he still owns.

‘My friend was raped and asked to not be touched. She said “No” several times. Finally the drugs took over and as she became high my friend was raped by Todd Entrekin and [the other man],’ Cross wrote in a statement.
Cross, who is a recovering drug and alcohol addict, claimed that after the rape, Entrekin and the other man slapped her friend ‘on her behind and asked if she enjoyed it.’
The woman also stated that Entrekin provided the minor with alcohol, cocaine and cash multiple times.
Cross further alleged that while she was underage, she had sex with two other Etowah County law enforcement officers, who have since left the force, and a third man who was not identified.
Entrekin, who is married, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and instructed his attorney to send a letter to Etowah County District Attorney’s Office asking for an independent state agency to ‘thoroughly and immediately’ investigate Cross’ claims, and also why it took her more than 25 years to come forward.
‘I’ve never had sex with any 15-year-old girl or had drugs around or anything,’ the sheriff told Al.com. ‘I have never done drugs in my life. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard of. Never, ever has anything like that happened before.’
Cross contacted the authorities about the allegations against Sheriff Entrekin in late May, and Oneonta Police Chief Charles Clifton filed an incident report on May 29 detailing her claims.
Clifton first learned about Cross from Rainbow City Police Chief Jonathan Horton, who asked him to look into the matter because Horton was running against Sheriff Entrekin in a primary election.
Horton was concerned that if he opened an investigation into Entrekin, it could have been perceived as a political attack.
Entrekin made national headlines in March after it was revealed that over the past three years, he legally pocketed more than $750,000 earmarked to purchase food for county jail inmates and put that money towards buying himself and wife Karen a four-bedroom beach house in Orange Beach near Pensacola, earning him the nickname ‘beach house sheriff.’

iThe Entrekins have amassed a $1.7million real estate portfolio comprised of six homes scattered around Alabama, despite the sheriff’s drawing an annual salary of just over $93,000.
Unfazed by widespread censure, Entrekin maintained that keeping the money and using it as he saw fit was legal, and that he was not going to stop pocketing the funds until the legislature changes the law.
In early June, Entrekin was defeated in the Republican primary election for sheriff in a landslide by Rainbow City Police Chief Horton, who previously criticized his opponent for turning public funds into a personal ‘bonus check.’
Last week, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey moved to end the World War II-era practice that allowed county sheriffs like Enterkin to collect federal and state funds from jail food programs.