Beltrami County bookings include assault case, Hibbing man charged in drug bust

Three people, Lacey Auginaush, Sharon Henry-Gouge and Frank Bigbear, were booked into the Beltrami County jail on May 19, a reminder that a booking is a custody record, not a finding of guilt. The county’s inmate locator says booking into the jail does not establish that a person is guilty of, or convicted of, any crime, and the jail is licensed by the state and regulated by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

Beltrami County’s Sheriff’s Office patrols more than 3,000 square miles and serves more than 47,000 residents, with the population more than doubling in summer because of tourism. That makes the county’s jail and court records especially important public tools in a place where enforcement stretches from Bemidji to the more remote parts of the county. The county’s records division maintains arrest records, citations, accident reports and related documents, while Minnesota Court Records Online gives the public access to district court case records and hearing information.

Bigbear’s name has appeared in other public records before. A Minnesota Supreme Court opinion filed July 31, 2024 involved Frank James Bigbear in a third-degree criminal sexual conduct case that the opinion said involved a 14-year-old victim. A separate Beltrami County booking report from Dec. 2, 2025 also listed Frank Bigbear. Those records place his name in the public file more than once, though each booking and each case remains distinct until the courts say otherwise.

The county’s current bookings also landed during a busy stretch for local law enforcement. Beltrami County issued a press release on May 18 titled “Shooting Injury and Arrest,” indicating another active case moving through investigators and deputies around the same period. Taken together, the records show multiple matters unfolding at once, but they do not by themselves point to a single pattern or a broader public-safety shift.

Elsewhere in the region, a separate Hibbing case added more drug and weapons allegations to the public docket. A traffic stop on Friday led to the arrest of a 48-year-old Hibbing man, according to the report, after a vehicle search allegedly turned up 28 grams of cocaine. A search warrant at his residence allegedly produced another 14 grams of cocaine, more than 500 Schedule 2 and Schedule 4 narcotics and a stolen handgun.