Ex-Dalton cop removed from sex offender registry

Dec. 28—In September 2016, former Dalton Police Department (DPD) officer Daniel Harrison Tolbert pled guilty to the sexual battery of a child.

On Friday, Dec. 22, Conasauga Judicial Circuit Judge Jim Wilbanks approved a motion in Whitfield Superior Court allowing Tolbert to be removed from Georgia's sex offender registry requirements.

Tolbert, 41, was represented by attorney Noah Pines in the proceedings.

"What I actually found out, your honor, when the evaluation came back is that the Sexual Offender Risk Review Board (SORRB) had actually previously classified Mr. Tolbert in Sept. 14, 2018, as a Level 1 (offender)," Pines told the court. "But since there was a court order, they went back and just re-looked at this case, reevaluated it and came back, again that he is a Level 1 offender."

According to SORBB's classifications, Level 1 offenders are deemed to have "an average or lower risk of perpetrating a new sex offense" and "tend to have no or only a few identifiable risk factors."

Tolbert was sentenced to five years — with the first two years to be served in confinement and the remainder on probation — for the sexual battery conviction.

"As a condition of probation, he successfully completed sex offender conditions of probation, which included sex offender treatment," Pines continued. "My understanding is he has no delinquency reports while in prison or on probation, no revocations."

Per Whitfield Superior Court documents, Tolbert entered the 2016 guilty plea under North Carolina v. Alford — essentially, a type of plea in which a defendant maintains his or her innocence while acknowledging the potentiality of a guilty verdict if his or her case goes to trial.

As part of that plea, prosecutors opted to drop two additional counts of child molestation against the defendant.

According to a bill of indictment, the sexual battery offense purportedly occurred "between the first day of January 2012 and the 31st day of March 2014, the exact date being unknown."

Pines said that his client was 32 years old when the alleged offense occurred. The alleged victim in the case, he said, was 8 years old.

"I recognized the name when it came up, because he was actually going through the hiring process of the Dalton Police Department when these charges happened," he told the court.

According to a 2014 media statement, Tolbert had been a DPD trainee for roughly three months at the time of his arrest.

"Since he is otherwise qualified to get off the registry, we have to prove — actually, the court has to find by a preponderance of the evidence — that my client does not pose a substantial risk of perpetrating any future, dangerous sexual offense," Pines said. "It's not that there's not a risk, because there's always a risk of everything. But there's not a substantial risk."

Pines told the court that Tolbert was in the United States Army for two years and suffered "part of a traumatic brain injury" during a training accident.

"That was undiagnosed for a while," he added. "He's actually on full V.A. (Veterans Affairs) disability now, he gets treatment from the V.A. for that injury that he had."

Pines said that his client's "disability" prevents him from working.

"He lives in Henry County," he said. "And he's registered in Henry County ... he moved back when he got out of prison."

Outside of the sexual battery conviction, Pines told Judge Wilbanks that Tolbert has no prior or subsequent criminal history.

The mother of the alleged victim in the case was present in the courtroom for the Dec. 22 hearing.

She told the court she was opposed to Tolbert being removed from the sex offender registry. Contradicting Pines' statements, she also claimed that online postings indicate that Tolbert has been working — as a driver for a rideshare service.

"He is working, with access to young girls in the public," she stated. "He should be required to register."

A probation representative indicated that Tolbert's conditions did require him to refrain from having contact with minors "without proper supervision."

Wilbanks noted that Tolbert's probation sentence ended in 2021.

"Of course, he'll always be a convicted felon for the rest of his life, but this would change those requirements that he register as a sexual offender," Pines said. "We believe it is appropriate in this case."

Conasauga Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Christina Antalis, citing statements made by the family of the alleged victim in the case, told the court the State was opposed to the motion.

"He appears to not live in this area and has not lived in this area for some time," Wilbanks said prior to approving the motion. "And, otherwise, has appeared to have jumped through every hoop and legal requirement that's been required of him for purposes of his sentence and treatment."