North Dakota Lawmaker Ray Holmberg Resigns After Exchanging Texts With Child Porn Suspect

A file image of North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg listening during a joint House and Senate Appropriations Committee meeting at the Capitol in Bismarck, N.D., on Jan. 7, 2009. AP Photo/Will Kincaid

North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator, Ray Holmberg, resigned on Monday from the state Legislature after it was reported that he had exchanged text messages with a jailed man facing child pornography charges.

Holmberg, a 78-year-old grandfather of five who became one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers during his 46-year career, said he would resign effective June 1, noting that this will give GOP leaders in his district enough time to find his replacement.

“Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings,” Holmberg said in a statement announcing his resignation. “I want to do what I can, within my power, to lessen such distractions.”

“Consequently, in respect for the institution and its other 140 members, I shall resign my Senate seat effective June 1, 2022.”

Holmberg’s resignation came less than a week after The Forum of Fargo reported that he had exchanged 72 text messages in August with jailed Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, who is facing a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment on federal child pornography and sexual abuse charges.

Morgan-Derosier is also accused of taking two children under the age of 10 from Minnesota to his home in Grand Forks without their mother’s permission, with the intent to sexually abuse them, according to The Forum of Fargo.

According to the report, Holmberg’s number was among those Morgan-Derosier had texted between on Aug. 23 and 24, 2021 when he was imprisoned at the Grand Forks County Jail.

At the time the report was published, Holmberg told The Forum of Fargo that the text exchanges were regarding “a variety of things,” including patio work that the jailed man did for him.

Holmberg also said he was unaware that Morgan-Derosier was in jail when the text exchanges occurred.

The content of the text messages is not publicly available.

Holmberg initially told the paper that he had read about the charges but in a separate interview later said that he had not, according to the Forum.

He also told the newspaper that he no longer has the text messages, and when asked, stated that they, “They’re just gone.”

Holmberg has not been charged with any crime.

The Grand Forks Republican’s term was scheduled to end on Nov. 30 and he had already announced in March that it would be his last, stating that the decision was based on “medical issues” that “do not afford me the cognitive ability to accurately perform the work required and expected of a senator representing the people of Grand Forks in the 2023 legislative session.”

Despite his resignation, the lawmaker will remain on the Legislature’s payroll through May and on its state-funded health insurance plan through July, a benefit that is worth about $1,425 monthly.

Holmberg was first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 1976 and, up until Monday, served as chairman of the Legislative Management Committee, which decides members’ assignments and studies topics that often are considered for legislation.

He also served on the interim Budget Section, sat on the state’s Emergency Commission, which allocates funding and resources in times of an emergency, and served on or chaired several GOP-led redistricting committees.

The Epoch Times has contacted a lawyer for Holmberg for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.