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Ex-North Dakota lawmaker to be sentenced for traveling to Europe to pay for sex with minors

apnews.com

Ex-North Dakota lawmaker to be sentenced for traveling to Europe to pay for sex with minors

The new details emerged as prosecutors outlined their reasons for the judge to impose a roughly three-year prison sentence and lifetime supervised release for former state senator Ray Holmberg, 81. He pleaded guilty last year to travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity. He faces up to 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release.

The new court documents say Holmberg used his positions as a high school guidance counselor and state lawmaker to exploit vulnerable youth and young men for decades, and cite numerous messages the prosecutor said show some of his countless arrangements to pay for sex with young men while traveling, often while on state business trips.

32 comments

  • Something tells me that if one were to look back through his public statements to the media there would be at least one rant about Democrats harboring pedophiles, or something.

    • I don't have an Instagram account and have no intention of making one, but he does have a post that I can see a low-resolution image of on Instagram that he and some other Republicans in North Dakota signed objecting to anti-LGBT language in the party platform, so I'd say the opposite, at least on the sexual orientation front.

      https://www.instagram.com/holmbergforsenate/p/CEFxUw8pdd0/?hl=en

      Don't see anything doing date searches with Google either, though I'd guess that state senators probably aren't normally all that high-profile.

  • supervised release.

    That supervised release doesn't seem to be working out too well so far:

    https://northdakotamonitor.com/briefs/former-state-senator-convicted-of-child-sex-crime-again-accused-of-violating-pretrial-release/

    Holmberg was released from custody on Oct. 30, 2023, with certain stipulations — including location monitoring, internet restrictions, no drugs or alcohol and no contact with victims or witnesses. The terms were updated this spring to bar Holmberg from using electronic devices without permission, according to court records.

    “Since the date of the last status report filed on August 2, 2023, the defendant has continued to access the internet for reasons not approved by pretrial services,” a pretrial services officer says in the document.

    The document notes that Holmberg accessed social media sites like Facebook and Twitter seven times between Aug. 13 and Aug. 17, and once on Sept. 22, without authorization.

    On Aug. 7, Holmberg also “frequented” a home in Fargo in violation of his location monitoring requirements.

    “The defendant has been given verbal reprimands and has been reminded of his conditions of release on numerous occasions,” the document says.

    Court documents indicate Holmberg has violated the terms of his release several other times this year. An August court filing describes additional instances when he used the internet for unauthorized purposes, as well as occasions when he frequented an adult novelty store. In May, he tested positive for alcohol, which is not allowed under the release conditions.

32 comments