Raleigh Man Charged With Impersonating Officer, Sexual Battery

Meredith Delynn Cromartie Jr., 33, was booked at the Wake County Detention Center without bond after Raleigh police say he posed as a sworn law enforcement officer, pulled a woman over in a fake traffic stop, and forced her into unwanted sexual contact along Capital Boulevard near Old Wake Forest Road on March 18.

Cromartie faces four charges filed in Wake County District Court: impersonating a law enforcement officer, sexual battery, second-degree kidnapping, and felony extortion. According to arrest warrants, Cromartie grabbed the victim's hand and placed it on his penis without her consent, an act investigators described as done for sexual gratification and against her will. After the stop, he continued contacting the victim and was reportedly seen driving near her home, according to a Raleigh Police Department news release.

Cromartie turned himself in Monday at the Orange County Sheriff's Office, where he was served with the outstanding Wake County charges.

The arrest is, by court records, his sixth in the last decade on impersonation charges. In January 2018, a North Raleigh teenager described a man in a uniform arriving at her townhouse and claiming he had papers authorizing him to take her dog. "I didn't want to argue if it really was a police, so I just handed my dog over," she told ABC11 at the time. Investigators charged Cromartie in that case with impersonating a law enforcement officer and larceny of a dog. ABC11 reported it marked the fourth time since 2015 that Raleigh police had charged him with the same offense.

His record extends further. In July 2013, Raleigh police arrested Cromartie on two counts of indecent liberties with a child. He was convicted of second-degree kidnapping in 2022, released from prison in August 2024, and had recently completed parole. In a striking sidebar to that timeline, Cromartie filed to run for Wake County Sheriff in 2022 before his imprisonment.

Wake County Sheriff's Office Lieutenant David Bradford said law enforcement treats impersonation cases as a top priority. "We are targeting them. If we get a call and we find them, they will be apprehended, and we will take them to jail," Bradford said.

Raleigh police have not confirmed whether additional victims exist. Anyone with information is asked to call Raleigh police at 919-996-3335 or submit a tip through Raleigh CrimeStoppers.