Dale Anderson will spend 180 days in the Adams County Jail after pleading guilty to a sex charge committed while he worked as a Brown County probation officer.
Anderson pleaded guilty to Sexual Imposition and Obstructing Official Business charges on November 27 and was sentenced on December 29.
Visiting Judge Brett Spencer also fined Anderson $2000, sentenced him to two years of community control, ordered him to register as a Tier 1 sex offender and that he be “assessed for, and complete if necessary, sex offender counseling.”
Anderson will also lose his Ohio Peace Officer certificate as a result of the felony conviction, which means he will not be able to work in law enforcement.
Following the sentencing, Anderson’s attorney William Rapp said, “Dale has accepted responsibility for his misconduct and he apologizes to his peers as well as the Brown County community. Not a day goes by that he does not regret his actions, although he did not do what he was originally charged with doing.”
Rapp added, “It’s my hope that over time, the community won’t judge a lifetime of honorable public service by one incident of extremely poor judgement.”
Anderson pleaded guilty on Nov. 27, the day that his trial on more serious charges was about to begin.  He faced a Sexual Battery Charge and two charges of Tampering With Records.  All were third degree felonies.  Those counts were reduced to what Anderson pleaded to or were dismissed.
During his guilty plea to Sexual Imposition, Anderson admitted inviting a number of individuals on probation to his home in the fall of 2009 following their community service.
“During that point in time I touched (the victim) in an inappropriate way,” Anderson told Visiting Judge Brett Spencer at the November hearing.
When asked by Spencer where exactly Anderson touched the victim, Anderson replied “her butt.”
“Was this over or under the clothes?”, asked Spencer.
“Over,” replied Anderson.
During his guilty plea to Obstructing Official Business, Anderson admitted to certifying to a Clermont County court in August of 2008 that community service had been performed by an individual and that he was not aware whether it had been performed or not.
“I was approached by Tom Sawyers about an employee of his,” Anderson told Spencer.
“He asked what she could do (regarding community service) and I told him what qualified.  He later came back to me and gave me dates that she allegedly did community service in various townships where he was doing asphalt work picking up trash.  I then documented that and sent it to Clermont County.”
Anderson attorney William Rapp clarified what Anderson was admitting to for Spencer.
“Dale signed off on a Clermont County probation form, putting two Brown County probation stamps on it.  The hours are set forth on this form and then the person who verifies and observes the community service signs off on it.  So Dale signed off on that form and had it delivered back to Clermont County.  If you look at the form, it appears and the reports represent that he personally observed these community service hours being performed, when in fact, that was not the case.”
Anderson was suspended without pay by Brown County Municipal Judge Joe Worley on December 21, 2016.  He had been working as a probation officer for the court since January of 2007.