Calhoun man charged in connection with November runaway case
A Calhoun man has been charged in connection with a November 2020 incident involving a 15-yearold female runaway.
Deputies with the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office Jan. 4 arrested Dakota Alexander Roberson, 19. He was charged with aggravated sexual battery, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, multiple counts of statutory rape, tattooing the body of a minor, four counts of aggravated child molestation and four counts of child molestation.
According to police reports, deputies were called out to a home in Sugar Valley Nov. 24 after the girl’s grandfather, Clyde Wallace, called to report her as a runaway. Wallace told police that she had threatened to run away earlier in the day and could not be found even after he completed a search of surrounding areas to which she may have walked.
Prior to his granddaughter’s disappearance, Wallace said he saw a white male walking up the sidewalk toward their residence. The man introduced himself as Dakota Roberson and asked to use the telephone to call for assistance for his broken-down vehicle. Wallace agreed. He told police Roberson simply held the phone for a moment, said the number failed and returned it. Roberson then claimed he would go next door to get help because he knows the family. According to Wallace, that could not have been the case as the neighboring home belonged to his daughter.
Roberson was not seen again following that encounter, but Wallace said his granddaughter claimed she knew him and believed him to be her biological brother. She was seen walking down the driveway and street in the same direction as Roberson just before her disappearance; she was dressed in a white shirt and ripped blue jeans, carrying a pink bookbag.
Wallace later received a text from his granddaughter stating that she was in Rome.