Aaron Doss, a 27-year-old Fargo resident, had cold feet, but that didn’t matter. He had already committed a crime that carries a mandatory minimum penalty of ten years in federal prison: he used the internet to compel and lure a 15-year-old girl to engage in illegal sex acts.
Doss was indicted last month alongside Ryan Baron, a former North Dakota school superintendent. Baron is accused of arranging for Doss to meet the victim at a local gym, where they would have intercourse and record it for Baron, Assistant US Attorney Gary Delorme told the court on Monday, July 22.
Both Doss and the victim proceeded to the gym, but Doss decided against carrying out the plan.
Federal law does not require that the sex act occur; rather, the use of the internet to seduce the girl was sufficient to violate coercion and enticement law, a charge punishable by up to life in prison.
Doss pled guilty to one count of the indictment on Monday morning. As part of a plea deal, the government agreed to drop all remaining charges against him.
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Doss is scheduled to be sentenced in November. His plea deal is nonbinding on the court, therefore Chief Judge Peter Welte is not required to follow the agreement between Doss and the government when determining the punishment in the case.
Baron, 41, is scheduled to stand trial in the case on August 6, however, his lawyers have requested a continuance. He was first accused of possessing child sexual abuse materials in state court in November of last year, while still serving as principal and superintendent of the Midkota School District.
The Midkota School District covers the tiny communities of Binford, Glenfield, McHenry, Grace City, and Sutton in north-central North Dakota’s Griggs and Foster counties, between Jamestown and Devils Lake. According to district authorities, Baron’s job will end in December 2023, and the state board suspended his license in March.
At a February hearing in the state’s case against Baron, the Griggs County state’s attorney stated that one of the victims was a Midkota student.
The federal lawsuit also charges Baron with six other offenses, including attempted sexual exploitation of a child and receiving, possessing, and disseminating photographs portraying sexual exploitation of children.