North Dakota
Federal child sex exploitation case filed against former ND school superintendent, 2nd suspect
FARGO — The man who was serving as a school superintendent in North Dakota when he was first charged with possessing child sexual abuse materials last November now faces several child sexual exploitation charges in federal court.
Ryan Baron, the former principal and superintendent in the Midkota School District, was federally indicted June 6, the same day a judge in Griggs County scheduled his trial in the state case for mid-September. The case was unsealed June 12.
It’s unclear if the state case against Baron will continue to go forward in light of the higher court’s charges.
Baron’s co-conspirator in the federal case, Aaron Doss, 27, of Fargo, had a related state case pending in Cass County, but it was dismissed in light of the federal indictment.
Baron and Doss are both charged in U.S. District Court with several counts, including one count of coercion and enticement of a minor. The indictment said the two men used the internet to “knowingly persuade, induce, entice, and coerce,” a girl under 18, “to engage in sexual activity.”
The suit also charges Baron, 41, with six other related counts, including attempted sexual exploitation of a child, receiving, possessing and distributing images depicting the sexual exploitation of children.
One of the counts claimed Baron’s criminal activity occurred between January 2014 and January 2016, a time period far earlier than those alleged in the state court documents.
According to Baron’s LinkedIn profile, he was working as a math teacher at a school in his hometown of Browerville, Minnesota from August 2015-June 2016.
Two federal counts against Baron alleged his crimes continued into January 2024, at least two months after investigators found
he had five different videos
in his Google Drive account containing explicit sexual content involving men and young girls.
At a February hearing in the state case against Baron
, the Griggs County State’s Attorney said a Midkota student was one of the victims in the case.
The Midkota School District serves the small communities of Binford, Glenfield, McHenry, Grace City, and Sutton in Griggs and Foster counties in north central North Dakota, between Jamestown and Devils Lake. District officials said Baron’s employment ended in December 2023. The state board
suspended his license
in March.
A trial has been scheduled in federal court for Aug. 6. It is set to last four days.
The Community Calendar publishes events, meetings and fundraisers in The Jamestown Sun at no charge. To submit an activity, email it to news@jamestownsun.
Saturday, May 23
Buffalo City Group Alcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m. (open), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, noon (open) and 8 p.m. (open), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, 1:30 p.m., women (closed), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James Valley Street Machines Shop Tour 2026. Schedule: 9-9:30 a.m.: Dakota Engine Builders, 2809 U.S. Highway 281; 9:40-10:20 a.m.: Adam Auto Express, 3735 U.S. 281; 10:30-10:55 a.m.: Tom Ravely, 1205 15th St. SW; 11:05-11:35 a.m.: Klein’s Body Shop, 414 17th St. SW; 1-1:30 p.m.: Preferred Transmission, 825 5th Ave. NE; 1:40-2:15 p.m.: Kainz Klassics, 2614 4th St. NE (take 3rd Street Southeast, turn left on 85th Avenue North); 2:30-3:15 p.m., Jon Greeinstein, 1424 Hwy 281 (across from the North Dakota National Guard); 3:25-4 p.m.: Neil Baker, 1142 41st St. NW; 4:10-5 p.m.: Steve Jaskoviak, 500 block 1st Street East (east of Orphan Grain Train, north side of street).
Sunday, May 24
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James River Alanon Family, 4 p.m., AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
Adult Children of Alcoholics, 7 p.m., AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
Narcotics Anonymous, 4:30 p.m., New Hope Free Lutheran Church, 1545 4th Ave. NW.
Monday, May 25
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, 4:30 (open) and 8 p.m. (closed), 518 10th Ave. SE, (topic).
Celebrate Recovery, 6 p.m. dinner, 7 p.m. meeting, Church of the Nazarene, 1306 6th Ave. SE.
Narcotics Anonymous, noon, Clubhouse. 518 10th Ave. SE.
Memorial Day observances in the area:
Jamestown: 9 a.m., Gladstone Inn and Suites, followed by naval ceremony is planned at Nickeus Park, visits to city cemeteries, 11 a.m. Veterans Memorial Wall ceremony. Freewill lunch, 11:30 a.m., All Vets Club.
Gackle: 10 a.m., Gackle Legion Hall Mayer-Morlock Post #250, followed by ceremonies at the Gackle Cemetery, Alfred Cemetery. Potluck lunch after at Gackle Legion Hall.
Kensal: 10:30 a.m., Kensal Public School, followed by ceremonies at Kensal Cemetery and St. John’s Cemetery. Lunch at St John’s Catholic Church.
Medina: 10:30 a.m., Medina High School, followed by visits to Medina Community Cemetery and the Catholic Cemetery. Dinner follows at American Legion.
Pettibone/Woodworth: 9 a.m. at Pettibone Cemetery; 10:30 a.m., at Woodworth Gem Cemetery. Potluck dinner follows at Woodworth Fire Hall.
Pingree: 10:30 a.m., Pingree Community Center. After, meet at the depot and march to the cemetery to decorate military veterans’ graves. Noon meal follows at community center.
Sanborn: 9:30 a.m., rifle volley, Sacred Heart Catholic Cemetery; 9:45 a.m., at Fairview Cemetery; 10 a.m., donuts and coffee at the Sanborn Community Center.
MINOT — “It’s hard to do enhanced oil recovery,” Charles Gorecki said during a Plain Talk podcast interview from the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.
Gorecki is the head of the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota. That organization conducts exploratory research explicitly driven by North Dakota’s industrial and environmental needs. Stuff like how to reduce flaring, how to build safer pipelines and how to enhance oil recovery.
The theme of the conference, which
brings together all the major players in North Dakota’s oil and gas industry,
was “cracking the code,” which is a reference to ongoing efforts for enhanced oil recovery. Something that could perhaps set off a second oil boom, and prolong the oil and gas industry’s prodigious contributions to North Dakota’s economic prosperity and tax revenues.
Gorecki said there are many promising paths to enhanced oil recovery, but using captured carbon emissions to unlock more oil from wells is one of the most promising. The problem? We don’t have enough of it.
“I’ve talked about CO2 being the thing that we need in massive quantities, hundreds of billions of tons to really unlock the Bakken,” he told us.
“For context, our coal fire power plants in the state of North Dakota produce annually about 30 million tons of CO2,” he continued. “So it would take all the coal fire power plant CO2 emissions captured times three or more to really enhance that recovery to have what we would consider basically, volumetrically, a second boom in the Bakken.”
But getting that carbon to North Dakota has proven politically fraught. Opposition to a carbon pipeline proposed by Summit Carbon Solutions has
caused that project to be rerouted to Wyoming,
and while some of that outcome had to do with Summit’s
aggressive and ham-handed
approach to landowners, there’s no question there’s a noisy and organized movement against carbon pipelines in general.
Gorecki told us “there’s a lot of misinformation” about the issue. “We transport things in a number of different ways in this country. We transport them by truck, by train, by pipeline,” he said. “And by far the safest way to transport large amounts of liquids and gases is in pipelines.”
Also on this episode, guest co-host Alison Ritter and I talked about the controversies around data centers, and carbon pipelines, and whether too many in the public are taking North Dakota’s economic prosperity for granted.
If you want to participate in Plain Talk, just give us a call or text at
701-587-3141.
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The Community Calendar publishes events, meetings and fundraisers in The Jamestown Sun at no charge. To submit an activity, email it to news@jamestownsun.
Friday, May 22
Jamestown Overcomers Narcotics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m., Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1201 4th St. NE.
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, noon (closed, topic) and 8 p.m. (open, speaker meeting) AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
Overeaters Anonymous, 5:30 p.m. Regular weekly step meeting; phone meeting only. Call 701-320-2386 before meeting time to get information on calling into meeting.
Saturday, May 23
Buffalo City Group Alcoholics Anonymous, 9 a.m. (open), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, noon (open) and 8 p.m. (open), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James River Alcoholics Anonymous, 1:30 p.m., women (closed), AA Clubhouse, 518 10th Ave. SE.
James Valley Street Machines Shop Tour 2026. Schedule: 9-9:30 a.m.: Dakota Engine Builders, 2809 U.S. Highway 281; 9:40-10:20 a.m.: Adam Auto Express, 3735 U.S. 281; 10:30-10:55 a.m.: Tom Ravely, 1205 15th St. SW; 11:05-11:35 a.m.: Klein’s Body Shop, 414 17th St. SW; 1-1:30 p.m.: Preferred Transmission, 825 5th Ave. NE; 1:40-2:15 p.m.: Kainz Klassics, 2614 4th St. NE (take 3rd Street Southeast, turn left on 85th Avenue North); 2:30-3:15 p.m., Jon Greeinstein, 1424 Hwy 281 (across from the North Dakota National Guard); 3:25-4 p.m.: Neil Baker, 1142 41st St. NW; 4:10-5 p.m.: Steve Jaskoviak, 500 block 1st Street East (east of Orphan Grain Train, north side of street).
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