North Dakota lawmakers plead guilty on Europe trip to illegal sex with minors – NBC 6 South Florida

A high-profile former North Dakota lawmaker who was one of the most powerful members of the Legislature pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to one count of traveling to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with a minor.

Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, was charged in October 2023 with traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and receiving and attempting to receive child sexual abuse material. The Republican served more than 45 years in the North Dakota Senate before resigning in 2022. He initially pleaded not guilty and a trial was scheduled for September.

Under a plea agreement he signed in June, Holmberg agreed to plead guilty to the first charge, with prosecutors seeking to dismiss the second and recommending a sentence at the low end of the guidelines range.

The travel charge carries maximum penalties of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release.

In the plea agreement, Holmberg acknowledged that from approximately June 2011 through November 2016, he “repeatedly traveled from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Prague, Czech Republic, for the motivated purpose of engaging in commercial sex with adolescents under the age of 18.”

Holmberg has been subject to numerous conditions of release, including travel restrictions, location monitoring and the surrender of his passport.

On Friday, the pretrial services officer filed a report saying Holmberg had not met those conditions.

She wrote that he was verbally reprimanded and reminded of the conditions of his pretrial release after he left his residence once and also visited an adult novelty store, both without authorization. He also “continuously” accessed the Internet for unauthorized reasons and did not allow updates or maintenance to his cellular device monitoring software, she said.

In May, Holmberg admitted to consuming alcohol after testing positive. Later that month, she was ordered to remove an unauthorized iPad from her home and the judge added a condition restricting Holmberg’s access to electronic devices.

Since then, he continued to access the Internet for unauthorized purposes, the officer wrote.

“Due to the statutory mandate for detention, the defendant is respectfully not viewed as a suitable candidate to voluntarily surrender,” U.S. pretrial services officer Christine Argall wrote.

Holmberg’s attorney, Mark Friese, declined an interview request. Holmberg was not arrested.

Former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon said the report is a routine filing but that the alleged violations are serious given the nature of Holmberg’s case.

“I’m particularly concerned about the idea that he’s accessing the internet through unauthorized devices that aren’t being monitored. That’s really concerning when someone is facing charges like the ones he was facing,” Purdon said. It’s not unusual for Holmberg to not have been arrested, she added.

Holmberg served in the state Senate from 1976 until mid-2022. She initially announced she would not seek reelection but resigned after The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported she exchanged dozens of text messages with a man in jail to obtain child sexual abuse material.

For many years, Holmberg chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes budgets. He also chaired the Legislative Management panel, which handles various matters between biennial sessions. That job allowed him to approve his own travel.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show Holmberg made dozens of trips across the United States and other countries since 1999. The destinations included cities in more than 30 states, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway.

Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association returned about $142,000 to the state and ended its role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program months after releasing travel records following Holmberg’s indictment that showed he used state funds when he traveled to Prague and other European cities in 2011, 2018 and 2019.

It is unclear whether the misconduct reported by authorities occurred during any of those trips.

The factors in the Holmberg case make it arguably the most significant political scandal in North Dakota history, Purdon said.

“We have a very high-profile politician. We have literally the worst allegation imaginable, the sexual abuse and rape of a minor,” he said. “And then we have the idea that taxpayers’ money paid for the plane ticket.”