Ray Holmberg (Sherburne County Jail photo)
By: Amy Dalrymple
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic material and discusses the sexual exploitation of minors.
FARGO (North Dakota Monitor) – A former North Dakota lawmaker set to be sentenced next week for a child sex crime has a history of leveraging his power to exploit vulnerable boys and young men, a prosecutor alleges in court documents filed Wednesday.
Ray Holmberg, once one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Fargo on March 26 after pleading guilty in August to traveling abroad to have sex with adolescent boys.
Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl describes in a sentencing memorandum Holmberg’s pattern of sexual exploitation that investigators uncovered, including more than 14 trips to Prague for the purpose of having sex with underage boys between 2011 and 2021.
“The boys and young men with whom Holmberg sought to engage in commercial sex were some of the most vulnerable in the world,” the document states. “Especially in Prague, they were homeless boys and men often recruited to work at the Villa by its owner because of their vulnerabilities.”
The exploitation was not limited to those trips, according to the prosecutor. Holmberg has not been charged with additional crimes.
A former student of Grand Forks Central High School, where Holmberg worked as a guidance counselor, told investigators Holmberg began grooming him as a 16-year-old. Holmberg gave him money in exchange for videos involving sexually explicit conduct, he said, and he struggled with drug addiction at the time.
The former student moved out of state, and on one occasion Holmberg flew to film him engaged in sexual activity, the court record states. Investigators recovered the videos, produced nearly three decades earlier, during a search of Holmberg’s residence, according to the memorandum. The former student told investigators “it was not a consensual relationship” and that Holmberg exploited him for years.
Investigators also discovered a catfishing scheme in which Holmberg, using the alias Sean Evan, posed as a teenage boy in 2012 in an online chat forum for teens who had undergone circumcision surgery, the memorandum alleges. Holmberg exchanged emails with a 16-year-old boy for months and solicited photos under the guise that he was concerned about his surgery, the document states.
Holmberg, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held one of the most powerful positions in the Legislature. “Holmberg’s offending conduct over the course of decades … can only be described as corruption,” Klemetsrud Puhl writes. “That is, he used his position to serve his own ends.”
Court records also allege Holmberg leveraged his power and influence to obtain sexual favors from other young men, including students at the University of North Dakota.
A cooperating witness told investigators he engaged in sex with Holmberg over a three-year period while he was a student at UND in exchange for money he used for groceries and rent, court records say, and later Holmberg gave him UND hockey tickets and access to influential people.
Another cooperating witness described a similar pattern of receiving tickets to UND and North Dakota State University sporting events, and access to VIPs. The witness said Holmberg seemed to expect something in return for the introductions. Others involved in politics also began propositioning the young man, he told investigators.
An examination of Holmberg’s electronic devices showed he arranged for commercial sex “on countless occasions” while traveling in the U.S. and abroad, often trips paid for by the North Dakota Legislature, court records show.
Between 2013 and 2022, Holmberg reported about $109,000 in state travel costs, more than any other North Dakota lawmaker, according to Legislative Council data. Holmberg served as chair of Legislative Management between 2013 and 2018, a position that allowed him to approve some of his own travel requests.
Legislative Council used state money to reimburse Holmberg for about $13,000. The other roughly $97,000 was paid by outside entities.
While traveling to Chicago in 2009, Holmberg arranged to meet with a sex worker at his hotel. “I’m at conference but can sneak way for a time, no problem,” according to court records.
In one email, written under his alias, Holmberg bragged: “Had a great legislative forum yesterday in which I got blowjobs from Republicans and Democrats for all the power I have.” He also wrote, “I will stay in power as long as I don’t get caught in a motel room with a 17-year-old boy.”
One cooperating witness said Holmberg traveled to Prague to have sex with even younger boys at a brothel called Villa Mansland, court records show.
Investigators also found that Holmberg routinely bragged to friends he trusted about his sexual exploitation of boys.
“No one is ever to young … remember Prague,” Holmberg wrote in one message, according to court records.
Holmberg pleaded guilty in August to one count of traveling with the intent of having sex with adolescent boys in connection with the Prague trips. He has not been charged with any other offenses.
Holmberg has no prior criminal convictions or criminal history, defense attorney Mark Friese wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday. Friese did not immediately return a request for comment late Wednesday evening.
Holmberg, 81, a Republican from Grand Forks, served in the North Dakota Legislature for 45 years, resigning in 2022.
He was linked to the investigation of Nicholas Morgan-Derosier of Grand Forks, who, in May, was sentenced to 40 years in prison on child pornography charges.
During a plea hearing, Holmberg maintained he broke no laws in the Czech Republic, referring to the age of sexual consent in that country. He said he liked getting massages and they sometimes included sexual contact.
Lori Cohen, an attorney who leads the organization known as PACT, or Protect All Children from Trafficking, said under U.S. law, it’s a crime to purchase sex from a child anywhere in the world.
In response to a question from the judge about how Holmberg fell into that lifestyle, Holmberg said it began after he retired in 2002 from Grand Forks Central High School.
A plea agreement calls for Holmberg to serve between three and four years in prison, which is within federal sentencing guidelines. The agreement also calls for him to be on supervised release for life. He is being held in jail in Minnesota, awaiting sentencing.
Editor’s note: In describing the allegations, the Monitor is sticking closely to the legal description of the charge against Holmberg, which does not include the terms “assault” or “rape.”
Sentencing Memorandum for Ray Holmberg can be read below. PLEASE NOTE: The content within the memorandum is graphic in nature –
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