Ray Holmberg after pleading guilty in federal court August 8, 2024 to travelling overseas to have sexual relations with minors. (Joe Leier/KFGO News)
FARGO (North Dakota Monitor) — Former North Dakota legislator Ray Holmberg chose to avoid a criminal trial by pleading guilty to child sex charges, but his case is far from over.
“Much more will be coming out in the written submissions that the parties provide to the courts and at the time of his sentencing hearing,” Mark Friese, Holmberg’s attorney said Thursday, after Holmberg’s guilty plea was accepted in federal court.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland said during Thursday’s hearing that he had not seen the evidence or discovery — relevant information and facts about the case that prosecutors and defense attorneys share with each other.
The amount of discovery in the case is vast, more than 36,000 pages. More information will be filed before the sentencing hearing, such as background information on Holmberg’s employment history and health. Holmberg will be interviewed as part of the presentence investigation.
Holmberg, 80, a father and grandfather, also can have people write letters of support that Hovland said he would consider in determining a sentence.
Holmberg, a Republican, represented a Grand Forks Senate district for more than 45 years and served as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
He resigned from the Legislature in April 2022, months after a search warrant was executed at Holmberg’s Grand Forks home on Nov. 17, 2021.
Some of the discovery in the Holmberg case is related to Nicholas Morgan-Derosier. Morgan-Derosier is a Grand Forks man who was sentenced in May to 40 years in prison on child pornography charges, a much longer sentence than Holmberg likely faces.
Prosecutors in the Holmberg case said Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier watched child pornography together. A child pornography charge against Holmberg was dropped as part of his agreement to plead guilty to a charge of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
Holmberg admitted in court Thursday to taking multiple trips to Prague in the Czech Republic to pay for sex with boys.
Because of the large amount of discovery and fact-finding, Hovland said the presentence investigation would likely take five to six months, about twice as long as a typical case. The time between Morgan-Derosier’s guilty plea and his sentencing was even longer, about eight months.
Morgan-Derosier awaited his sentencing in the Cass County jail.
The charge against Holmberg would usually require that he await sentencing in custody, too.
The North Dakota Republican Party called for him to be jailed in a statement released late Thursday.
But prosecutors said there should be an exception in Holmberg’s case, in large part because of his numerous health issues and medical appointments.
Holmberg will remain on supervised release. He is under electronic monitoring and needs court permission to leave home. Violating the conditions of that release could affect his sentence. Holmberg previously violated conditions of his release, including visiting the adult novelty store Romantix and accessing the internet for unauthorized purposes, court records show.
“How you live your life is important,” Hovland told Holmberg.
Holmberg must surrender his cellphone and iPad and will have to register as a sex offender. Hovland noted that whether Holmberg is determined to be a low-, moderate or high-risk offender is determined by the state Attorney General’s Office.
Hovland said sentencing guidelines suggest a sentence of three to four years for Holmberg, though the charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years.
Holmberg benefits from a lack of criminal history, which helps shorten the suggested sentence.
Hovland noted that there is no mandatory minimum sentence for the charge that Holmberg pleaded to.
“It looks like Congress needs to address that weakness in that charge,” Hovland said.
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