Sentence pending for man who assaulted girls

A Carlton County man charged with sexual contact involving three juvenile girls will be sentenced in August.

Jamie Alden Godbout, 35, originally faced 10 felony charges in a 2022 case that combined charges for abuse of all three girls, but his attorneys requested the cases be split. Carlton County Attorney Lauri Ketola said her office had to honor the request, which meant dividing the charges and resulted in two of the cases being filed in 2023.

According to Ketola, a jury found Godbout guilty three weeks ago in the first case to reach trial. On Friday, July 12, Godbout agreed to plead guilty to one of the remaining charges, if the other was dismissed.

According to the criminal complaint, Carlton County officials learned of the allegations against Godbout after two of the minor accusers told officials in Superior. Due to the allegations of sexual contact, including digital penetration, occuring in Carlton County, the investigation was assigned to the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office.

Following a forensic interview with the alleged victims, the oldest accuser showed an investigator screenshots of social media messages between her and Godbout. In the messages, he allegedly tells her he loves her, the complaint said, and that “she is his in 20 months,” plus other sexual messages. The victim told authorities she was 13 the first time Godbout started making sexual remarks to her, and he allegedly started touching her when she was 14, including putting his hands in her pants when she was sleeping, causing pain. There were also allegations of attempts to force oral sex, but the victim refused.

Another accuser told interviewers that Godbout abused her from age 8 to 11, alleging he touched her in a sexual manner when she was asleep and forced her to rub his penis at locations in Cloquet and Superior, the criminal complaint said.

During the course of the investigation, Superior police received a report of another underage accuser who alleged being touched sexually by Godbout when he was babysitting when she was only 7 or 8 years old.

The woman with whom he was in a relationship told authorities she broke it off when the oldest accuser informed her about the conduct. The woman did not report Godbout to the authorities but encouraged the victim to report it.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Godbout will be sentenced to prison for between 288 and 360 months (or 24-30 years), with the judge to make the final decision.

All three girls can give victim impact statements at the Aug. 9 sentencing.