FARGO —
Former North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg could be jailed while he awaits sentencing on a federal child sex abuse charge after a report said he
continuously violated release conditions .
In a motion filed on Tuesday, Oct. 15, North Dakota First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl requested a hearing that would determine if there are “exceptional circumstances" to keep the 80-year-old Holmberg out of jail. The request comes after U.S. Pretrial Services Officer Christine Argall filed a report on Thursday, Oct. 10, in North Dakota U.S. District Court that said Holmberg continued to violate the terms of his pretrial conditions.
Namely, the report said Holmberg accessed without Pretrial Services permission social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, eight times after he pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to a
federal charge that said he traveled to Prague multiple times between June 24, 2011, and Nov. 1, 2016, with plans to sexually abuse children.
He also went to a home in Fargo on Aug. 7, the day before his plea hearing, without Pretrial Services approval, the report said.
Holmberg has no regard for court orders that prohibit him from accessing the internet without permission, despite several warnings from Pretrial Services and U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, Puhl said.
“From the beginning, the defendant has demonstrated a brazen attitude about his conditions of release,” she wrote. “It is therefore clear that (Holmberg) simply cannot control his impulses.”
A status hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 17.
Holmberg has been on electronic home monitoring since he was federally indicted on Oct. 26, 2023. Conditions for release also included avoiding alcohol and drugs without a prescription, travel restrictions and pretrial supervision.
This is the
second report that said Holmberg violated his pretrial conditions.
He left his home and went to Romantix, an adult novelty store, continuously accessed the internet for reasons not approved by Pretrial Services, possessed unapproved devices, and “failed to abide by the regulations of the monitoring software installed on his cellular device by not allowing updates and routine maintenance to be performed by the monitoring software provider,” the Aug. 2 report said.
Holmberg admitted to drinking alcohol at a friend’s home, though he denied other allegations that he violated his pretrial release conditions.
It’s typical for prosecutors to ask that a defendant who pleads guilty to a federal charge be held in jail while awaiting sentencing. Puhl and Holmberg’s attorney, Mark Friese, agreed that the defendant should not be jailed since he has several lingering health issues.
Holmberg suffers from spinal and pulmonary issues, significant bone structure loss in his mouth, arthritis in his hips, and hypertension, Friese said in court. Those conditions create “extraordinary circumstances” that support his release, Hovland found in his ruling.
Hovland gave Holmberg a stern warning about his prohibited use of the internet, noting the Pretrial Services report that said the defendant used his smart television to search for videos that showed young gay men and boys.
Holmberg’s search history on YouTube revealed he watched a video titled “First time you kissed a boy,” as well as videos that mentioned the phrases “twinks” and “sugar daddy,” Hovland said.
“I’m not sure what search terms you are using to access those videos, but that has to end,” Hovland said in court.
Holmberg’s pretrial conditions could impact his release, Hovland warned.
“Yet despite these warnings, (Holmberg) proved himself unwilling to refrain from using the internet,” Puhl said. “Mere days following his guilty plea, he is alleged to have used social media on seven different occasions. This is concerning behavior given that he has a history of soliciting underage boys via social media.”
Holmberg’s use of the internet poses a danger since he has access to “countless underage boys via social media,” Puhl wrote. He has used social media to solicit sex from young men and get “sexually explicit images from underage boys,” she wrote in her Tuesday filing.
“He therefore is a danger to the community,” Puhl wrote.
In her filing, Puhl didn’t outright ask for Holmberg to be jailed. She asked Hovland to determine if the “exceptional circumstances” still exist to continue Holmberg’s release.
The timing of the reported violations is telling, Puhl wrote.
“It is hard to imagine under what circumstances (Holmberg) would be motivated to abide by this Court’s Order, if not now,” she wrote.
Holmberg is a Republican who represented Grand Forks in the North Dakota Senate from 1976 to 2022. He resigned after
The Forum reported he was connected to a man who was jailed on child sex abuse material charges.
That man, Nicholas Morgan-Derosier, later admitted in federal court to trading child sex abuse material. Prosecutors alleged Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier watched child sex abuse videos together.
Holmberg was known as one of the most powerful lawmakers in the North Dakota Legislature, as he chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee and Legislative Management, a joint House and Senate committee that determines which studies to pursue between regular sessions and which legislators sit on interim Senate and House committees.
