FROM: HOLLEY CARNRIGHT
DATE: OCTOBER 4, 2017
RE: PRESS RELEASE –
DISTRICT ATTORNEY D. HOLLEY CARNRIGHT ANNOUNCES:
OUT OF STATE PREDATOR SENTENCED FOR SEX WITH MINOR
Daniel K. Poole, 49, of 135 Remington Avenue in Port Deposit, Maryland, was sentenced Wednesday, October 4, 2017, in Ulster County Court to 11 years in state prison to be followed by 10 years of post-release supervision, the maximum sentence permitted by law. He will be required to register under the New York State Sexual Offender Registration Act for the remainder of his life. An Order of Protection in favor of the victim and her parents will remain in effect until 2046.
Poole pled guilty on July 25, 2017 to Criminal Sexual Act in the Second Degree, a Class “D” violent felony and Rape in the Third Degree, a Class “E” felony. He admitted that on June 14, 2016, he engaged in oral sexual conduct with a child who was less then fifteen years old and that in October of 2016, he engaged in sexual intercourse with a child less than seventeen years old.
An investigation conducted by the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office led to Poole’s arrest on January 25, 2017. That investigation commenced when members of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office were engaged in training exercises in the Town of Esopus and observed a young female walking in a somewhat remote area and shortly thereafter observed a vehicle with Maryland license plates circling the area at a slow rate of speed. The defendant who was dressed in full camouflage, claimed to be lost on way to hunt for snow geese in Albany but his account of how he ended up in that location was riddled with inconsistencies and physical impossibilities. Officers observed an already dead goose in the vehicle and contacted the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to investigate as the defendant did not have a New York State hunting permit. It was eventually determined that the defendant had traveled from Maryland to meet a minor he met online and brought the goose as a decoy to show his wife when he returned home.
Further investigation revealed that the defendant met the victim on a website in January of 2016, when she was fourteen years old. The relationship continued for almost a year with continuous online communication. The communications became sexual including the exchange of inappropriate photographs. The defendant first came to Ulster County in June of 2016 when he met the victim near the remote location where he was found by the police. The defendant met the victim in New York and engaged in sexual acts on two additional occasions after she turned fifteen.
District Attorney Holley Carnright stated that is critical that parents are aware that predators of this nature really do exist and are engaging children online. Carnright also lauded the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office for the quick thinking of the officers at the training site who are not specifically trained nor regularly handle sex crimes against children.
The case was prosecuted by Bureau Chief of the Special Victims Unit, Katherine R. Van Loan of the Ulster County District Attorney’s Office. The defendant was represented by Michael Pollock, Esq. of Red Hook.