Carrie Cotton

CARRINGTON – A Carrington woman charged with eight counts of impersonating an officer received a 360 day suspended sentence and three years probation on two of the counts but will go to prison on other, related criminal offenses.

Carrie Beth Cotton also faced 19 counts across six separate misdemeanor cases in which she was charged with stalking, violation of a disorderly conduct restraining order or harassment for multiple incidents occurring since the fall of 2022.

She was sentenced April 8 in Southeast District Court to 360 days on each count, with all but four suspended. Those four related to violation of a disorderly conduct restraining order and stalking and resulted in combined sentences totaling about four years. District Judge James Hovey imposed consecutive sentences of 360 days each, with credit for one day served, and three years probation.

Cotton had changed not guilty pleas to Alford pleas on all charges, not admitting guilt but conceding there was evidence to convict her at trial.

According to a complaint filed with the court last year, Cotton, then 45, was charged with setting up fake social media accounts in 2023, claiming to be the Carrington police chief. The police chief alerted the Bureau of Criminal Investigations to one account, which made posts on marketplace pages to apologize for allowing drug dealers to operate, allowing a relative to engage in drinking and driving and having marital affairs. A subpoena of the internet provider led the BCI to Cotton. Other accounts existed that spread similar statements but not all could be directly traced to Cotton, and six counts were dismissed for lack of probable cause.

Other complaints state Cotton stalked and used social media, letters, texts and phone calls, often despite restraining orders, to frighten or harass others, beginning in September 2022. One complaint listed messages sent on more than 50 different dates, using more than 90 different phone numbers, and another listed vulgar messages sent to a 13-year-old.