{"id":20494,"date":"2026-02-24T05:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=20494"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:06:08","slug":"fargo-12-years-before-release-in-child-sex-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/fargo-12-years-before-release-in-child-sex-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Fargo: 12 Years Before Release in Child Sex Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cass County, North Dakota<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) – A Fargo man was sentenced after a child sex plea.<\/p>\n

Sentencing<\/h2>\n

Aaron Cofell<\/strong> was sentenced on February 23, 2026, in Cass County District Court.<\/p>\n

The court imposed a 30-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Cofell must serve at least 12 years before he can seek release.<\/p>\n

The sentence also includes five years of supervised probation.<\/p>\n

He received credit for 278 days already served.<\/p>\n

Court location details are posted by the North Dakota Court System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plea and dismissed charges<\/h2>\n

Cofell pleaded guilty in November 2025.<\/p>\n

He admitted to gross sexual imposition of a child under age 15.<\/p>\n

He also pleaded guilty to endangering a child or vulnerable adult.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors dismissed three other counts as part of the plea deal.<\/p>\n

Those counts included meth possession and drug paraphernalia possession.<\/p>\n

A simple assault charge was also dismissed.<\/p>\n

\"Aaron
Aaron Cofell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Investigation<\/h2>\n

The West Fargo Police Department<\/a> arrested Cofell on May 22, 2025.<\/p>\n

Police said they received reports of a sexual assault.<\/p>\n

They also received reports of ongoing abuse involving a minor.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the victim was under 15 at the time.<\/p>\n

Victim services<\/h2>\n

Investigators worked with local child support teams after the arrest.<\/p>\n

They partnered with the Red River Children\u2019s Advocacy Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They also used the Sanford Children\u2019s CARE Clinic<\/a> for medical services.<\/p>\n

Release rules and public resources<\/h2>\n

The court ordered Cofell to register as a sex offender.<\/p>\n

Public offender information is posted on the North Dakota Sex Offender Registry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He must also follow a no-contact order under the judgment.<\/p>\n

He is barred from internet access under sentencing conditions.<\/p>\n

Restitution remains open for 90 days.<\/p>\n

The court will require a written agreement or set a hearing.<\/p>\n

State law on gross sexual imposition appears in North Dakota Century Code, Title 12.1-20<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you need help, support is available.<\/p>\n

RAINN offers 24\/7 help at rainn.org\/hotline<\/a>.<\/p>\n

North Dakota\u2019s victims’ compensation program is listed at DOCR.nd.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cass County, North Dakota (trfnews.i234.me) – A Fargo man was sentenced after a child sex plea. Sentencing Aaron Cofell was sentenced on February 23, 2026, in Cass County District Court. The court imposed a 30-year prison sentence. Cofell must serve at least 12 years before he can seek release. The sentence also includes five years… Continue reading Fargo: 12 Years Before Release in Child Sex Case<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[14149,8236,871,4987,1239,14150,1122,772,769,2932,2253,1198,230,2425,794,8371,786,2641,217],"class_list":["post-20494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-aaron-cofell","tag-before","tag-case","tag-cass-county-north-dakota","tag-child-endangerment","tag-child-sex-case","tag-child","tag-crime","tag-fargo","tag-fargo-nd","tag-gross-sexual-imposition","tag-north-dakota-court","tag-release","tag-sentencing","tag-sex","tag-sex-offender-registry","tag-trf-news","tag-west-fargo-police-department","tag-years","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}