UPDATE: Former State Senator Ray Holmberg pleads not guilty to federal child porn charges
FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — Former State Senator Ray Holmberg of Grand Forks has entered a not guilty plea to two federal child porn charges: child sex tourism and receipt of child porn.
An initial trial date has been scheduled for December 5, 2023 in U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota in Fargo.
Holmberg was released and will be on electronic monitoring.
If he is convicted of the charges, he could face up to 50 years in prison.
**ORIGINAL STORY BELOW**
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KVRR-KFGO) – Raymon E. Holmberg, who was North Dakota’s, and one of the nation’s longest-serving state senators until he resigned last spring, has been indicted on federal child pornography charges.
The charges, filed October 26 and unsealed Monday, come two years after police and federal agents raided the 79-year-old’s home in Grand Forks after an investigation showed Holmberg had traded scores of text messages with another man who was jailed on child pornography charges.
Mark Friese, a criminal defense attorney with the Vogel Law Firm in Fargo, is representing Holmberg. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of North Dakota Jennifer Puhl is prosecuting the case for the U.S Government.
A federal grand jury charged Holmberg with two counts. The indictment against him claims Holmberg traveled to the Czech Republic for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor, and that he knowingly received child pornography. Court records show Holmberg’s offenses took place between June of 2011 and November 2016.
Nicholas Morgan Derosier is the man Holmberg was accused of communicating with while Derosier was in jail. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of possession and distribution of child pornography in September. Besides the jail texts, there are a number of connections between Derosier and Holmberg.
In a previous evidentiary hearing in the case, it was revealed that Derosier’s former landscaping business partner had been killed in a work-site accident while the two were clearing snow at Holmberg’s residence. Authorities said Derosier was operating a front-end loader that ran over his business partner multiple times.
Months later, the N.D. Attorney General’s Division of Consumer Protection and Antitrust issued an order of injunction to prohibit Derosier’s landscaping company from doing business and Derosier was overheard by investigators on the phone with the AG’s officer trying to arrange for a meeting in Bismarck at a time when Holmberg needed to be there so that they could ride there together.
Holmberg was one of the Legislature’s most powerful lawmakers for decades, serving as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He chaired the Legislative Management committee four times. The Republican legislator was first elected to his senate seat, serving Grand Forks’ District 17, in 1976.
