James Ralph Marsolek Sentenced After Admitting to Stealing, Selling Water Meters

James Ralph Marsolek, 66, of Jamestown pleaded guilty to theft of property and was sentenced in Southeast District Court, where Judge James Shockman ordered one day in the Stutsman County Correctional Center with one day credit for time served, 200 hours of community service at a rate of at least eight hours per month, three years supervised probation and $14,833 in restitution.

Court documents list the offense as theft of property, initially charged as a Class B felony but treated as a misdemeanor for disposition; under state law a Class B felony carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Marsolek is no longer an employee with the city of Jamestown Water Department, court filings state.

Prosecutors say the thefts occurred from Jan. 24, 2025, to Dec. 13, 2025, during which Marsolek removed old water meters and copper from a dumpster inside a secure, city-owned building and sold the material to a buyer identified in court papers as West End. Court records state Marsolek went to West End at least 50 times during that period, selling 9,632 pounds of brass for more than $14,400, about $300 worth of copper and a radiator for about $90, and that the aggregate value of property taken exceeded $10,000 but was less than $50,000.

Evidence described in court documents includes sales receipts bearing signatures Marsolek acknowledged and a copy of his driver’s license made by a West End employee who flagged the repeated meter sales as suspicious. An employee at West End told investigators he thought it was "fishy" that Marsolek kept selling old water meters and made a copy of his driver’s license, the filings say.

Marsolek told investigators about his motive: "Marsolek told the Jamestown Police Department he took and sold the old water meters because he has a gambling problem, court documents say. Marsolek also said the signatures on the receipts were his." Those admissions, along with the transaction records and the ID copy, are included in the court record used at sentencing.

Judge Shockman fixed the restitution at $14,833; the paperwork does not detail the line-by-line calculation in court filings available to the public. The court's sentence combines a brief custodial term, a substantial community-service requirement, and three years of supervised probation as the criminal disposition in the Southeast District Court docket.