On September 1, 2018 Ryan and I left our two children, Lukas (7) and Natalee (4), with four children of trusted friends. We were taking their parents to the opening game for NDSU. They volunteered their children to baby sit, ranging in ages from 17 to 9 years old.

Fast forward to September 10, 2018. I, Rosa, had just gotten home from work when my husband asked to speak to me. He said that Natalee, being four, had walked in on him using the bathroom and had said some very disturbing things. So, I went and spoke with Natalee. Upon hearing one of my worst fears come from my daughters mouth I contacted the police and reported that my four year old daughter had just told me she had been raped.

After the forensic interview we learned how truly horrific it was. The 13 year old son of our friends had raped our 4 year old daughter 3 times over the course of approximately 5 hours.

I could not believe this. 

Let’s fast forward to sentencing... in January 2019 the offender was convicted of Gross Sexual Imposition (which in adult court is a AA class felony). He received 1 year of probation and out patient therapy. I was angry.. furious! North Dakota doesn’t even have a treatment program for juvenile offenders. When we asked the judge to contract out to MN for his treatment his response was ‘A treatment program cannot offer anything more than the community can.’ What the what?! The community isn’t even allowed to know who this boy is!

So I decided to make a change. I may not have the power, on my own, to bring the lack of a treatment program to law makers attention but, I could maybe impact how the law in ND is written concerning GSI in juvenile court. I could advocate for the victim and their families. I could, at the very least, let the community know what is going on in our court system.

So, I contacted the legislators in my district. I introduced myself to people I never even thought I would meet until this happened. I asked questions and for direction and eventually a legislator listened to my plee and sat down and talked with me.

Ben Koppelman is our families Super-man because, he didn’t just brush me off or introduce me to some one else. Instead he said ‘you’re right laws need to change.’ and he helped me to pick up this ‘mantle’ and together we attended meeting after meeting. Read through draft after draft and ultimately created what is fondly known as Natalee’s Law aka HB 1520.

We fought for this law as a family along with Representative Koppleman’s help. In April 2019 Natalee’s Law passed unanimously through the House and the Senate and was signed by Governor Bergum. It become active in the state of North Dakota on August 1, 2019.

Now we continue to fight to spread awareness and education. We continue to advocate for the victim and their families. Because sexual abuse/assault affects more than the offender and victim. It affects their friends and families too. We are continuing to speak with legislators to further advance ND laws to protect the victim and for stricter sentencing when it comes to juvenile sex offenders. We cannot achieve any of this without the support of our community and we are so thankful to live in a state where community support is abounding.


Natalee’s law AKA HB 1520 https://sos.nd.gov/files/legislation/1520.pdf
The video that started it all-https://www.facebook.com/rosanryan/videos/10157085977667490/

https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Policy-makers-hear-testimony-for-Natalees-Law-505483051.html

https://www.westfargopioneer.com/news/4619218-Ride-in-support-of-Fargo-girl-whose-survival-story-changed-state-law-raises-thousands

https://www.kfyrtv.com/content/news/Natalees-Law-passes-unanimously-on-House-floor-505792871.html