Former North Dakota Senator Ray Holmberg has signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to a child sex tourism charge.
According to a plea agreement filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Holmberg will voluntarily plead guilty to traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
According to the settlement, the longtime legislative leader admitted to repeatedly traveling from Grand Forks to Prague, Czech Republic, between June 24, 2011 and Nov. 1, 2016, for the purpose of engaging in commercial sex acts with minors under the age of 18.
Holmberg, a Republican from Grand Forks, retired from the North Dakota House of Representatives in 2022. He served in the House for more than 45 years, including as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, a powerful position.
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges of receipt and attempted receipt of child pornography. They also agreed to seek a sentence at the low end of the sentencing guidelines.
Attorney Mark Freese said in an email that federal sentencing guidelines for the crime call for a sentence ranging from three to four years in prison, which could be increased or decreased depending on factors determined by the court.
The maximum penalty for this offense is 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and life on probation.
Holmberg, 80, also acknowledged in his agreement that he will be required to register as a sex offender.
The agreement does not prevent prosecutors in other jurisdictions from bringing future charges against Holmberg, and it does not bar civil lawsuits.
Holmberg is scheduled to go on trial in Fargo in September. A date for the plea agreement has not yet been set.
Holmberg was among several lawmakers who traveled abroad on taxpayer-funded cultural exchange trips through an organization called Global Bridges. It’s unclear whether the criminal charges correspond to state-funded trips. Holmberg visited Prague during a stay in Europe on a Global Bridges trip, according to travel records compiled by the North Dakota School Boards Association.
The association informally resolved an ethics complaint related to the Global Bridges program and returned state funds that had been set aside for future trips. The ethics complaint was not made public.
Reprinted from the North Dakota Monitor (www.northdakotamonitor.com)
