Latest ND news from AP at 4:20 pm Sun Feb 20

CHILD PORN-SENTENCE

Former teacher sentenced to probation on child porn charges

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A former Minot elementary teacher and retired U.S. Air Force member has been sentenced to five years of supervised probation on child pornography charges. Forty-seven-year-old Richard Owen Ditmars, was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison, all suspended but the 30 days he already served in the Ward County Jail, for  felony child pornography. He was sentenced to 10 years, all suspended, for felony promotion of a sexual performance by a minor child. Ward County Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen says she agreed to the relatively light sentence because Ditmars took responsibility for his actions immediately and expressed appropriate remorse.

SEMI CRASH

Man dead after semitrailer slams head-on into car

STANLEY, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota man is dead after a semitrailer smashed into his car. The North Dakota Highway Patrol said in a statement that the 26-year-old Stanley man had parked his Ford Taurus facing north in the southbound lanes of state Highway 8 about 20 miles south of Stanley just after midnight Saturday. The semitrailer crested a hill and hit the Taurus head-on. Both vehicles ended up in ditches. The Stanley man was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have not released his name pending notification of next of kin.

TROOPER PLEA

Former highway patrol trooper to plead in sex assault case

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former high-ranking North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper accused of sexual assault has agreed to a plea deal. Steven Johnson was charged in November with misdemeanor sexual assault after a woman accused of him of touching her inappropriately while she was sleeping during a December 2020 party. The Bismarck Tribune reported Friday that Johnson has agreed to enter an Alford plea to a disorderly conduct charge in a deal with prosecutors. Defendants who enter Alford pleas essentially accept punishment but don’t admit guilty. Courts treat them as guilty pleas, however. Prosecutors agreed to keep the offense off Johnson’s record if successfully completes probation.

LAND COMMISSIONER

Heringer selected North Dakota land board commissioner

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Bismarck attorney and investment manager Joseph Heringer has been selected to head of the agency that handles land rights for some of North Dakota’s largest industries. Heringer replaces Jodi Smith, who resigned in October. The land board commissioner leads the Department of Trust Lands. The state Board of University and School Lands oversees the Land Department. Gov. Doug Burgum heads the five-member, all Republican board. The Land Department leases rights for grazing and rights to produce oil, coal and gravel from state lands. It manages several state trust funds, including the common schools trust fund that benefits public schools.

TRIBAL ANCESTORS-DISINTERMENT

Affidavits help return ancestral tribal remains to Dakotas

AGENCY VILLAGE, S.D. (AP) — Descendants of Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribal leaders will sign the necessary paperwork Saturday to help bring home the remains of their ancestors. Relatives of Amos LaFramboise and Edward Upwright will gather with South Dakota tribal leaders to sign affidavits that will allow the remains of the two young boys to be removed from the Carlisle Indian School cemetery in Pennsylvania and moved to the Dakotas. LaFramboise’s father helped found the Lake Traverse Reservation government in South Dakota. Upwright is the son of Waanatan II, an early tribal chief. The school cemetery is on property owned by the U.S. military which in recent years has given tribes the opportunity with affidavits from living relatives to claim the remains of the 188 Native American children buried there.