- Former North Dakota lawmaker Ray Holmberg, 80, pleaded guilty to traveling to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with minors.
- Holmberg admitted in court to paying young masseuses during multiple trips to the Czech Republic.
- He was indicted in 2023 on charges related to unlawful sexual activity and child sexual abuse material, but accepted a plea deal.
A powerful former North Dakota lawmaker pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to one count of traveling to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with a minor.
Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, admitted in court that he paid young male masseurs, some of whom he had sexual contact with, during multiple visits to the Czech Republic, although he said he was not sure how old they were.
Holmberg 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.
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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.
North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, speaks on the Senate floor at the state Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota, in November 2021. (Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File)
Judge Daniel Hovland granted his request and allowed Holmberg to remain free, with restrictions, until a later sentencing hearing. The disgraced former lawmaker, who was wearing a dark suit, declined to comment after the hearing.
The travel charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release.
In the plea agreement, Holmberg acknowledged that he had “repeatedly traveled from Grand Forks, North Dakota to Prague, Czech Republic, for the motivated purpose of engaging in commercial sex with adolescent individuals under the age of 18.”
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In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl detailed the allegations against Holmberg, including his emails with others related to his encounters in Prague. Puhl said he made 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021 and frequented a villa that one traveling companion described as a brothel that had teenage masseuses. Another traveling companion told investigators he paid for nights at the villa because Holmberg didn’t want his name on the registry, Puhl said.
Puhl said the investigation began around 2020-21 when child exploitation investigators were looking into a landscaper Holmberg knew named Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier. She said investigators interviewed an 18-year-old former employee of Morgan-Derosier who said he had sex with Holmberg in exchange for a condo association landscaping contract, and also saw Morgan-Derosier and Holmberg viewing child sexual abuse material at Holmberg’s home.
In 2022, after initially announcing he would not seek reelection, Holmberg resigned from his Senate seat after The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported on dozens of text messages the lawmaker exchanged with Morgan-Derosier, who was in prison at the time. Morgan-Derosier is currently serving a 40-year prison sentence.
The judge asked Holmberg how he got “caught up in this lifestyle,” the age of the youngest person he paid for sex and whether he traveled to other countries for the same purpose.
North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg listens during a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees at the Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota, January 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Will Kincaid, File)
Holmberg, a retired high school counselor, said, “It was something I did, I don’t want to say it just crossed my mind,” and “it was after I retired that this activity occurred.” He retired in 2002. He said he had been to Prague several times before 2011 and liked the opera and castles. He said he usually traveled alone.
Holmberg said he learned of the villa's existence after possibly seeing it on the Internet, but said he was not sure how old the masseuses were or how many encounters he had had with them. There was sexual contact with “some of them,” he said. He noted that the Czech Republic has a younger age of consent than the United States and said he did not recall traveling to other countries for the same purpose.
“I've been to several countries and the only one that stands out is the Czech Republic,” he said.
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Holmberg has been subject to numerous conditions of release, including travel restrictions, location monitoring and the surrender of his passport.
On Friday, a pretrial services officer filed a report alleging Holmberg had failed to comply with those conditions, including unauthorized Internet access, a visit to an adult goods store and a positive breathalyzer test. Holmberg was not detained.
The judge said he would honor an agreement between Holmberg’s attorney and prosecutors to keep him free until sentencing. His attorney, Mark Friese, cited Holmberg’s various health issues and upcoming medical appointments. The judge told Holmberg he is concerned about his compliance with the rules.
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 facts of the Holmberg case make it arguably the most significant political scandal in North Dakota history, said former federal prosecutor Tim Purdon.
“We have a very high-profile politician. We have literally the worst allegation imaginable, sexual abuse and rape of a minor,” he said. “And then we have the idea that taxpayers' money paid for the plane ticket.”
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In a statement, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called Holmberg's guilty plea “an important milestone in North Dakota's battle against child sex trafficking. Former state Senator Ray Holmberg has admitted his heinous crimes and has now been convicted of conduct that furthers the sexual exploitation of children domestically and internationally.”
