Zachary Archambault, 27, Minot, is appealing his conviction for Class AA felony continuous sexual abuse of a child to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Oct. 4.

Archambault is arguing that trial judge Gary Lee should have granted a mistrial and erred in only giving a brief continuance after it came out that the prosecution had neglected to disclose to the defense that the victim had been interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center until after she had already testified.

Lee decided that no substantial harm had been done to Archambault’s defense by the investigating officer’s failure to disclose the Children’s Advocacy Center interview to the prosecution earlier and deemed it an “inadvertent oversight” by the prosecution not to tell the defense until the girl testified.

Lee denied the defense’s motion for a mistrial but allowed a day’s continuance to prepare. The defense was allowed to call a witness back to the stand and show the Children’s Advocacy Center interview to the jury.

The prosecution has argued that the judge acted properly and the conviction should stand.

The jury subsequently convicted Archambault in July 2021 and Archambault was sentenced in March of this year to 40 years in prison, with a requirement that he serve 25 years, and five years of supervised probation.