Listen to Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner’s interview on WDAY Radio’s Jay Thomas Show
FARGO, N.D. – Despite the recent case of a Tennessee woman released from the Cass County Jail after charges were dropped against her in a bank fraud case, Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner is defending his department’s handling of her release from custody.
Appearing on the Jay Thomas Show Tuesday afternoon on WDAY Radio, the Sheriff said 6,735 individuals were released from the Cass County Jail in 2025. Fargo’s jail is the largest jail in the state.
With that many people in and out of the jail, Jahner said it’s impossible for his staff to know the circumstances surrounding each person’s stay in the jail.
He said that’s true in the case of Angela Lipps.
“They would not know the circumstances of Miss Lipps’ situation, and that she had been brought here and needed to get back,” Jahner said. “That would need to be relayed to us if we needed to make certain accommodations to get an individual back or know that they didn’t have a place to go here.”
The sheriff placed the responsibility of the notification to authorities on the court-appointed attorney that was assigned to Lipps’ case.
“The attorney is working with this person every day. They know that this person is going to be released,” Jahner said. “If that person needed certain circumstances, we would think that that person would let us know, because they have that first-hand information, and then we would most certainly make accommodations. We’ve done that in the past.”
Jahner said that, when a person is released from custody at the Cass County Jail, they are not released ‘out into the elements,’ as has been claimed in the case of the release of Angela Lipps.
“That’s really disappointing for me that someone would think that,” he said.
They are released to the lobby of the Cass County Jail, where they have access to charging stations for cell phones or a phone that can be used to make arrangements or accommodations for someone to come and get the person who is released from the jail. On occasion, the person may be in the jail lobby ‘for an extended period of time,’ in which deputies may offer assistance if needed. Jahner said his staff has also driven people to a location or put them up in hotels.
The sheriff’s office also works with other organizations, such as Jail Chaplains, to provide clothing and other programs that could help people with problems they need.
In the Lipps case, F5 Project founder Adam Martin was contacted by a court-appointed attorney for the woman from Tennessee. He drove to the Cass County Jail and picked up Lipps, allowed her to use a F5 Project cell phone to make arrangements and then, on the day after Christmas, drove her to Chicago, Illinois, where she was reunited with her boyfriend.
“I don’t remember if she had a coat or a backpack,” Martin said. “What I’ve been told by her attorney is that she was given a coat, but she wasn’t given anything else.”
Jahner said staff can offer departing inmates clothing at the jail if they’ve requested it.
It’s not clear whether or not Lipps requested clothing at the jail.
