BY: MARY STEURER
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A former North Dakota lawmaker accused of child sex tourism left a voicemail for then-Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem the same day a search warrant was executed in the case, a court transcript obtained by the North Dakota Monitor states.
The hearing transcript sheds light on why federal investigators sought a search warrant for Stenehjem’s cellphone data in connection with the federal investigation into former state Sen. Ray Holmberg.
Federal prosecutor Jennifer Puhl and Mark Friese, Holmberg’s defense attorney, met with U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland over the phone on March 6 to talk about updates in the case.
During the telephone hearing, the attorneys and Hovland discussed rescheduling the trial to allow the defense additional time to examine Holmberg’s iPad and cellphone, the transcript indicates.
Meanwhile, the prosecution was waiting on a forensic examination of Stenehjem’s cellphone data, which was discovered by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation in February.
A few weeks prior to the hearing, the prosecution executed a warrant to search data from Stenehjem’s phone, Puhl said in the transcript. According to Puhl, the scope of the warrant was “fairly limited.”
“So what impact, if any, is this recent disclosure of Wayne Stenehjem’s data from a cellphone going to have on this trial and the discovery in this case?” Hovland asked.
“The defendant left a voicemail with Mr. Stenehjem shortly after the search warrant was executed that same day and we interviewed Mr. Stenehjem as part of that — recovery of that voicemail,” Puhl told Hovland. “He then passed away. So we were looking to obtain the voicemail as well as anything else about the investigation on that phone.”
Investigators searched Holmberg’s Grand Forks home in November 2021.
At the time of the March hearing, the trial was slated for April 29. The same day as the telephone conference, Friese filed a motion to push it back. Puhl indicated during the hearing that federal prosecutors did not object to a delay. Hovland then issued an order postponing the trial to Sept. 9.
The five-day trial is set to take place in Fargo. It was originally scheduled for Dec. 5, 2023.
Holmberg, a Republican, announced in April 2022 he planned to resign from the North Dakota statehouse effective June 1, 2022. He served in the Senate for more than 45 years, and at the time of his resignation held the powerful seat of chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Federal court documents accuse Holmberg of repeatedly traveling to the Czech Republic to have sex with children between 2011 and 2016. The indictment also alleges that the former lawmaker received and attempted to receive child pornography in 2012 and 2013. Holmberg has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Stenehjem was a close associate of Holmberg, Attorney General Drew Wrigley has said. He has also said Stenehjem did not recuse himself from the Holmberg investigation. The attorney general oversees the BCI.
The BCI discovered in February that Stenehjem’s personal cellphone data had been backed up by investigatory technology used to unlock the phone for Stenehjem’s family in 2023.
The voicemail isn’t the only reason investigators are interested in the phone. After obtaining the search warrant, authorities found copies of emails from Stenehjem’s state account.
The messages were thought to have been lost forever. Immediately after Stenehjem died in January 2022, his executive assistant, Liz Brocker, directed IT staff to wipe the account.
After review from the investigators and the attorney general’s office, more than 2,700 pages of emails were released to media on Wednesday. Those emails covered November 2021 through late January 2022. A North Dakota Monitor review of those emails found no reference to the investigation of Holmberg. An assistant attorney general did send Stenehjem an email with the criminal complaint for Nicholas Morgan-Derosier, a Grand Forks man who last year pleaded guilty to federal child porn charges and is linked to Holmberg.
In searching the phone, police also discovered that Stenehjem used his personal email to conduct state business, Wrigley said Thursday.
The BCI also obtained Stenehjem’s personal laptop from his family in early March. The laptop was handed over voluntarily, Wrigley said. The device contains additional emails from Stenehjem’s state account.
The North Dakota Monitor has submitted records requests for the emails and other information from Stenehjem’s phone and laptop.
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