ST. CLOUD, Minn. — A former central Minnesota middle school teacher and coach has been sentenced to probation for sexually assaulting a female high school student.
Thirty-two-year Daniel Fragodt, of Melrose, pleaded guilty to third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Stearns County District Court.
He was sentenced Friday, Oct. 1 to five years of probation. According to a criminal complaint, the victim told investigators her sexual encounters with Fragodt began when she was 17 and occurred at school, a park-and-ride lot in St. Joseph and elsewhere.
The complaint said the encounters took place from August 2018 to August 2019. Fragodt was a math teacher in the Albany School District.
Police interviewed the victim on April 2, 2020 and she said she knew Fragodt as a math teacher and a coach for the cross country, basketball and track teams, but denied any sexual conduct by Fragodt.
On April 9, 2020, police obtained records from Fragodt's phone via an administrative subpoena and found the suspect had "extensive contact" with the victim dating back to September 2017, according to the complaint.
The phone records uncovered several hours of phone contact, along with extensive texting each month, the complaint says.
Police reached out to the victim's parents and the victim agreed to another interview on April 10, 2020. At that time she told police that she had a sexual relationship with the suspect, some of which took place when she was still 17 years old.
