A prosecutor dismissed Wednesday a misdemeanor cyberstalking charge involving Nathan Tabor, the former chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party, a court record shows.
Mariah Patterson, an assistant district attorney in the Davidson County District Attorney’s Office, dismissed the charge with leave against Tabor in Forsyth District Court, according to the record.
Patterson was assigned as a conflict prosecutor in the case.
The matter was heard in conflict court, which handles cases where there is a conflict of interest, such as a police officer charged with a crime, and an outside judge or an outside prosecutor is brought in to ensure impartiality.
Under state law, a dismissal with leave removes the case from the court’s docket, but prosecutors could re-file charges in the future.
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Harvey W. Barbee Jr. of Kernersville, the attorney for Daniel Hawtree Jr., sent an email dated Feb. 15 to Patterson, saying that “my client has instructed me that he no longer wishes to move with the prosecution of Mr. Tabor and wants to dismiss cyberstalking charge.”
Tabor, 49, was accused of using a cellphone to “harass, annoy and terrify” Hawtree, the senior pastor of Kerwin Baptist Church in Kernersville, according to court records.
Tabor had called Hawtree a “liar and a thief” and accused the pastor of embezzling money, according to a complaint for a restraining order that Hawtree filed. No criminal charges have been filed against Hawtree.
Tabor is happy with the outcome of the case, said Harold Eustache of Winston-Salem, Tabor’s attorney. Eustache then declined to comment further.
“We originally filed the cyberstalking charge because Mr. Tabor was engaging in a pattern of relentless, unwanted and harassing communication aimed at Mr. Hawtree, his associates, and even his family,” Barbee said in a statement to the Journal. “The conduct was unacceptable at the time and still is.
“Nevertheless, Mr. Hawtree, as an act of goodwill and forgiveness, determined that the best path was not to move forward and not to pursue the criminal charge against Mr. Tabor at this time,” Barbee said.
Tabor was chairman of the Forsyth County Republican Party from 2009 to 2012 and ran unsuccessfully for political office.
At one point, Tabor was facing criminal charges in three different counties, including Forsyth, based on a number of allegations.
He was accused by Brunswick County law enforcement officials of trying to extort the police chief of the Ocean Isle Beach Police Department and the sheriff of Brunswick County, stealing catalytic converters, conspiring with another man to steal a $6,000 golf cart and possessing cocaine.
Tabor also was accused of sending emails and texts to family members in Catawba County in an attempt to get more than $200,000, resulting in a charge of misdemeanor cyberstalking.
A Catawba County prosecutor voluntarily dismissed the misdemeanor cyberstalking charge due to insufficient evidence. And almost all of the criminal charges in Brunswick County were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
Tabor pleaded no contest to three felony charges in Brunswick — two counts of larceny of motor-vehicle parts and one count of possession of cocaine. Tabor was given two suspended sentences of four to six months on the larceny charges and a separate suspended sentence of four to six months on the cocaine charge. Tabor is on supervised probation for a total of three years.
