A former North Dakota Freeway Patrol trooper charged with sexual assault at a sizzling tub celebration has entered right into a plea settlement, avoiding a trial that was set for Friday.
Courtroom paperwork present Travis Skar’s misdemeanor trial has been canceled however don’t define the phrases of the settlement between the protection and prosecution. Attorneys should file the settlement inside 21 days. A choose should log off on the deal.
Skar, 40, was accused of inappropriately touching a lady in a sizzling tub in the summertime of 2020. A Bismarck police affidavit states the incident allegedly occurred between July 31 and Aug. 2 that yr.
The girl Skar allegedly assaulted was interviewed by police on Oct. 18, 2021, in line with the affidavit that’s dated Dec. 2, 2021. Formal expenses appeared in courtroom paperwork in February 2022. It’s unclear why a lot time elapsed between the alleged incident and the submitting of expenses.
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The girl informed police Skar was amongst a bunch of people that socialized on a pontoon earlier within the day. He allegedly touched her below the water within the sizzling tub and the girl “was frequently pushing Skar’s arms away in an effort to get him to cease,” the doc states. The girl exchanged seems to be with one other man within the sizzling tub, who then sat between her and Skar. Skar moved to the opposite facet of her, and the girl left the bathtub, in line with the affidavit.
The Tribune doesn’t title somebody who’s or is likely to be a sufferer of a intercourse crime.
The incident allegedly occurred the weekend earlier than the 2020 Sturgis Motorbike Rally in South Dakota. Skar made “imprecise apologetic feedback” to others within the group whereas they had been on the rally, the affidavit states.
Skar was fired from the Patrol “following an inside investigation associated to worker misconduct” that was “not particular to the latest cost,” a Patrol spokesman mentioned when the cost was filed.
One other former trooper, Steven Johnson, pleaded responsible in April to a cost of disorderly conduct. He was initially charged with misdemeanor sexual assault following accusations by a lady who informed police he inappropriately touched her throughout a December 2020 celebration at a Bismarck house.
A choose ordered Johnson to spend a yr on probation and pay $250 in fines and costs.
Johnson, a former Patrol official as soon as answerable for safety for the governor, is listed as a state witness in Skar’s case. Skar was listed as a witness in Johnson’s case.
Johnson was fired in November 2021 after “an investigation of a criticism of sexual assault,” in line with the Patrol. He was commander of the company’s southwest area on the time. Johnson’s legal professional known as the accusation an act of revenge by somebody who had a vendetta towards him.