Minot man enters pleas in remaining sexual assault cases

MINOT, N.D. (KMOT) – A Minot man will avoid further jail time after changing his plea to a series of open misdemeanor sexual assault cases.

Prosecutors had charged 62-year-old Flint Forsberg with five separate counts of sexual assault across three case files.

A jury found Forsberg guilty of one count in August.

Forsberg was set to stand trial for each of the remaining counts, but he changed his plea Monday in district court in Minot.

Forsberg entered guilty pleas to the two remaining counts in the original case file, according to the Ward County Clerk of Court’s office.

The clerk’s office said that in one case file, Forsberg entered an Alford plea to an amended charge of attempted sexual assault, and an Alford plea to sexual assault, as charged, in the remaining case.

Alford pleas mean Forsberg maintains his innocence but admits there is sufficient evidence to return a guilty verdict if the case were to go to trial.

In each of the five cases, the judge ordered Forsberg to 360 days in jail, but with all but one day suspended, and credited him for one day already served, according to the clerk’s office. The sentences are all concurrent.

He must serve two years of supervised probation, and take part in a psychological evaluation.

Forsberg must also avoid contact with the victims, and keep at least 100 feet away, for two years.

The courts dismissed a misdemeanor charge of disobedience of a judicial order.