An inmate that was being held in the Franklin County jail has had his $1 million bond reduced and was released from custody pending subsequent court appearances.
Former Winchester Police Officer Tristan Delacruz, who was arrested on May 4 on multiple sex-offense charges, including rape, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault, appeared in Franklin County Circuit Court on Tuesday.
His $1 million bond was reduced by Judge Thomas Graham to $100,000, and he was able to meet the requirement and was released from custody.
Delacruz is to appear again in Circuit Court on at 9 a.m. on July 29.
A Franklin County Grand Jury returned indictments charging the 28-year-old former police officer with six counts of rape, six counts of sexual battery, two counts of domestic assault, one count of false imprisonment, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of aggravated assault.
With the assistance of the Lincoln County and Franklin County Sheriffs’ Departments, Delacruz was later arrested in Lincoln County. He was transported to the Franklin County Jail, where he was booked on a $1 million bond and later transferred to the Coffee County Jail where he remained until his most recent court hearing.
An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation resulted in the indictment and arrest of the former police officer.
On Oct. 2, 2020, 12th District Attorney General J. Michael Taylor requested the TBI to investigate Delacruz on sexual-assault allegations.
During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that identified Delacruz as the individual allegedly responsible for multiple incidents of sexual assault in March 2020. He was subsequently released from his employment with the Winchester Police Department.
Delacruz was arrested for a third time in early November 2020 in connection with an assault incident, according to Franklin County Jail records.
