Ray Holmberg

Raymon Everett Holmberg (born December 10, 1944) is a former educator, school counselor, and Republican North Dakota senator. Once tied for the longest-serving state legislator in the United States, Holmberg resigned from the senate in 2022 (after 45.5 years) upon investigation into his alleged child sex tourism and receipt of child pornography.

Personal life
Raymon Everett Holmberg was born on December 10, 1944. He attended Climax High School in Climax, Minnesota, and was one of 26 senior-class students in the 1960–1961 academic year. He married Kerry Louise Hackett of Grand Forks, North Dakota (born 1951 (age 22)) on April 27, 1973, and, had two children and five grandchildren. In December 2020, he contracted COVID-19 and was treated with a convalescent plasma injection.

Education
From 1967 to 2002, Holmberg worked for Grand Forks Public Schools as a teacher, "child find coordinator", and school counselor. On November 2, 2023, a North Dakota Department of Public Instruction panel voted unanimously to suspend his lifetime teaching license, with a plan "to revoke it immediately if he pleads guilty to or is convicted of any charge" in his 2023 criminal case.

He was also previously a chairman of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

Politics
The Republican Holmberg was elected to the North Dakota Senate in 1976, and took office that December 1, representing District 17 ("Grand Forks south of 32nd Avenue South, neighborhoods along the Red River, and large areas west and south of the city"). He was to have been one of North Dakota's three electors for certifying the 2020 United States presidential election, but was replaced after contracting COVID-19.

For many years in office, Holmberg chaired both the senate's appropriations committee (which wrote budgets) and legislative management panel (which handled the legislature’s business between biennial sessions). While on a 2021 legislative committee to redistrict the state, Holmberg rejected a map drawing a Native American-majority district saying it was to avoid gerrymandering; the approved redistricting map was ruled a violation of the Voting Rights Act in 2023 by Judge Peter D. Welte in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.

After the 2021 retirement of Fred Risser of the Wisconsin Senate, Holmberg was tied with Nikki G. Setzler of the South Carolina Senate for longest-serving state legislator in the United States. In 2021, Holmberg was the Grand Forks Herald person of the year. In 2022, he was chairman of the Senate's Appropriations, Rules, and Legislative Management committees while also serving on the interim Budget Section; The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead called Holmberg "one of the most powerful and popular lawmakers in the legislature". From 2013 through mid-2022, Holmberg spent more state money on travel than any other legislator (US$125810).

In June 2021, Holmberg raised about US$20000 2021 for his 2022 reelection campaign. In March 2022, Holmberg announced he would not seek reelection that year due to "health issues including weakened cognitive abilities". After an investigation was published about his communications with an inmate accused of child pornography crimes, Holmberg resigned from the Senate six months early, on June 1, 2022. He was replaced by Jonathan Sickler. Despite no longer working in the North Dakota State Capitol,, Holmberg was still active in politics: offering advice and meeting with legislators to share access to his institutional knowledge, soliciting support for Republican candidates, and corresponding with politicos.

Background
In 2020, Caton Todd (formerly of North Dakota) alleged he was sexually assaulted by Holmberg in 2010, after having been invited to the senator's Miami-area condominium. Holmberg's attorney later confirmed the two men spent time together and that Holmberg owned the condo.

In March 2021, Nicholas James Morgan-DeRosier (from East Grand Forks, Minnesota, born 1989 (age 33)) was charged with ten counts of possessing child pornography photos and videos. In January 2022, a grand jury in the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota further indicted Morgan-DeRosier for "receiving and distributing child porn, transporting child porn, transporting minors with intent for those children to engage in sexual activity, and traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity". Court documents listed Morgan-DeRosier having over 6500 images and videos of child sexual abuse material.

On August 23, 2021, while Morgan-DeRosier was incarcerated in the Grand Forks County, North Dakota jail on the possession charges, he texted Holmberg, and the two exchanged 65 messages between 3:23 and 5:24   p.m., in part discussing Holmberg's interest in meeting Morgan-DeRosier's 19-or-20-year-old boyfriend "to give him a massage". The next day, Holmberg texted Morgan-DeRosier, and seven messages were passed back and forth between 6:14 and 6:31   p.m.  Morgan-DeRosier was bailed out at 9:14    p.m. on August 24. These text exchanges came to light as federal prosecutor Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl's evidence at Morgan-DeRosier's detention hearing. When The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead uncovered this connection and asked Holmberg about them, the legislator said the messages were about patio construction, claimed ignorance of the massage-related messages, and both claimed to have read about Morgan-DeRosier's changes while also not knowing about them. He later told The Forum, of his texts with Morgan-DeRosier, "They're just gone." Morgan-DeRosier pled guilty to "seven criminal charges related to possessing and distributing child pornography" in September 2023. On May 30, 2024, Judge Peter Welte imposed a sentence of 40 years imprisonment, victim restitution of US$39000 2024, and mandatory registration as a sex offender.

At 9:30   a.m. on November 17, 2021, Holmberg's Grand Forks condominium was searched by two special agents from the federal Department of Homeland Security (Daniel Casetta and Timothy Litzinger) and Detective Jennifer Freeman from the Grand Forks Police Department. Holmberg was interviewed by the agents, and evidentiary material was seized from his home, including CD-Rs and DVD-Rs. Law-enforcement also seized Holmberg's state-issued iPad and laptop computer. The federal investigation also recovered data from devices belonging to former North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem; some of which also proved relevant for the May 2024 jury trial of state representative Jason Dockter on misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charges.

Federal indictment and trial
A grand jury in the US District Court for North Dakota returned an indictment against Holmberg on October 26, 2023 (United States of America v. Raymon Everett Holmberg). He was accused of thrice traveling to Prague, Czech Republic&mdash;June 24, 2011; September 29, 2018; and late June 2019&mdash;to illegally have sex with minors. The trips were state-funded in cooperation with Atlantik-Brücke to "understand and integrate the various facets of international politics, business, academia and culture". Holmberg was also indicted for receiving or attempting to receive child pornography (between November 24, 2012, and March 4, 2013); Jennifer Puhl testified that Holmberg used the aliases Sean Evan and Sean Evans "to convince a child to send him sexually explicit images".

Arrested and arraigned on October 30, Holmberg pled not-guilty at the US District Court in Fargo, North Dakota. Judge Alice Senechal released Holmberg under the conditions: forfeiture of his passport; no contact with minors, victims, and witnesses; no access to the internet, no travel outside Greater Grand Forks or Fargo; and no possession of firearms. Senechal set a trial date of December 5, 2023, to be adjudicated by Judge Daniel L. Hovland. If convicted for child sex tourism, Holmberg could be sentenced to a maximum of 30 years imprisonment and US$250000 in fines; if convicted on the child pornography charge, Holmberg will receive a sentence between 5–20 years. On November 14, upon request of Holmberg's defense team, and with no objection from the federal prosecutor, Hovland postponed the Fargo trial to April 29, which was expected to last five days; in March 2024, it was delayed again until September 9.

It was reported on June 24 that, pursuant to a plea agreement (United States of America v. Raymon Everett Holmberg), Holmberg will plead guilty to child sex tourism and waive his right to appeal. In exchange, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will drop the charge of receiving child pornography and "recommend the low end of the sentencing guideline range"; Holmberg's attorney anticipated a recommendation of three to four years.