Richard Owen Ditmars

Richard Owen Ditmars, 47, Minot, pleaded guilty on Friday in district court in Minot to Class B felony promotion of a sexual performance by a minor child and Class C felony possession of child pornography. The state will dismiss nine other Class C felony counts of possession of child pornography against Ditmars under the terms of a plea deal.

Ward County Assistant State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen told Judge Doug Mattson that her office recommends a 10 year sentence, with all suspended except the time Ditmars already spent in jail, and three years of supervised probation on the B felony charge and five years in prison, all suspended but the time he has already served, and two years of supervised probation on the C felony charge. The sentences would be consecutive. Ditmars will also be required to register as a sex offender, not to use the internet without written permission from his probation officer, not to have any contact with children other than immediate family members without permission from the probation officer, who could only authorize supervised contact with minors, and to pay fines and fees.

Judge Doug Mattson ordered a pre-sentence investigation that will include a sex offender evaluation. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 12.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, Ditmars had illegal images and videos on his phone between January and March of this year and had emailed some of the images to a Yahoo account in January. The arrest came after an investigation by the Minot Police Department and North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation after they received a tip when Ditmars emailed an illegal image.