{"id":52535,"date":"2026-09-16T05:39:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=52535"},"modified":"2026-09-16T05:39:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T10:39:01","slug":"fargo-man-gets-20-year-sentence-10-to-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/fargo-man-gets-20-year-sentence-10-to-serve\/","title":{"rendered":"Fargo Man Gets 20-Year Sentence, 10 to Serve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fargo Man Gets 20-Year Sentence, 10 to Serve<\/h2>\n

Fargo (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>)<\/strong> \u2014 A Fargo man received a 20-year sentence Tuesday in a sexual assault case.<\/p>\n

Paul Edward Pelaez must first serve 10 years in prison under the sentence.<\/p>\n

Pelaez entered an Alford plea in April to one count of gross sexual imposition.<\/p>\n

The offense is classified as a Class AA felony in North Dakota.<\/p>\n

An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain innocence while accepting that prosecutors have enough evidence for conviction.<\/p>\n

Ten Years Ordered in Custody<\/h2>\n

Cass County District Judge Scott Diamond sentenced Pelaez to 20 years with state corrections.<\/p>\n

The judge ordered Pelaez to serve 10 years of that sentence in custody.<\/p>\n

The remaining 10 years are suspended while Pelaez completes five years of supervised probation.<\/p>\n

Those suspended years could be imposed if Pelaez violates probation conditions.<\/p>\n

Pelaez received credit for 596 days already spent in custody.<\/p>\n

That time will count toward the 10-year prison term.<\/p>\n

The sentence also requires Pelaez to register as a sex offender.<\/p>\n

He must complete sex offender treatment and follow a no-contact order involving the victim.<\/p>\n

The judgment also states that a mandatory minimum sentence applies.<\/p>\n

Additional Charges Dismissed<\/h2>\n

Seven other charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Those included three additional counts of gross sexual imposition.<\/p>\n

Two terrorizing counts were also dismissed.<\/p>\n

A misdemeanor charge involving the deprivation of a minor was dismissed as well.<\/p>\n

The dismissed charges did not result in convictions.<\/p>\n

Case Began With 2025 Arrest<\/h2>\n

Pelaez was arrested by a SWAT team in January 2025.<\/p>\n

A woman told investigators that Pelaez sexually assaulted her after waking her during the night.<\/p>\n

She also reported threats involving her workplace and her father.<\/p>\n

Some of those alleged threats were sent or posted through Facebook, according to court records.<\/p>\n

More information about the original arrest was reported by Valley News Live<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Case Included Court-Ordered Evaluation<\/h2>\n

The criminal case experienced several delays before sentencing.<\/p>\n

A court-ordered evaluation was conducted at the North Dakota State Hospital.<\/p>\n

The evaluation addressed Pelaez’s ability to proceed in the criminal case.<\/p>\n

It also addressed questions surrounding criminal responsibility, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Public court records can be searched through the North Dakota Court System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Adrian Cole reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 TRF News. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Fargo<\/a>
Fargo Man Gets 20-Year Sentence, 10 to Serve<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fargo man Paul Edward Pelaez was sentenced to 20 years, with 10 to serve, after an Alford plea in a gross sexual imposition case Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52653,"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":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[9523,1048,1266,25252,25251,2253,939,25250],"class_list":["post-52535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-alford-plea","tag-cass-county-court","tag-fargo-crime","tag-fargo-sentencing","tag-fargo-sexual-assault-case","tag-gross-sexual-imposition","tag-north-dakota-crime","tag-paul-edward-pelaez","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52535","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=52535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52654,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52535\/revisions\/52654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}