FARGO — Former North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg lied to The Forum about text messages he exchanged with a man accused of possessing child sex abuse materials, including about a massage request involving a young man.
Text messages entered as evidence during Holmberg’s Wednesday, March 26, sentencing hearing in North Dakota U.S. District Court showed he asked in August 2021 if Nicholas Morgan-Derosier’s boyfriend was coming over to Holmberg’s house for dinner and a massage.
The Forum first reported on the text messages in April 2022. At the time, the messages were not publicly available through open records requests.
“After all he has been through, I would suggest a relaxing massage,” Holmberg wrote in one text. “Massage would be good for (the boyfriend) I won’t take any pictures lol.”
At the time, Morgan-Derosier was incarcerated at the Grand Forks County Jail on state child sex abuse material charges. The charges were later dropped so federal prosecutors could pursue a case against Morgan-Derosier.
Morgan-Derosier pleaded guilty in September 2023 in North Dakota U.S. District Court to charges that said he possessed thousands of child sex abuse files, some of which he shared with others. The 37-year-old was sentenced to 40 years in prison, a punishment he has appealed.
Holmberg was charged in October 2023 with receiving or attempting to receive child sex abuse files, as well as traveling to Prague multiple times from 2011 to 2016 with plans to sexually abuse children. He pleaded guilty to the latter charge and was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors and investigators recently acknowledged Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier texted each other while Morgan-Derosier was jailed. Transcripts from Morgan-Derosier’s Jan. 4, 2022, detention hearing revealed he had exchanged text messages with a “77-year-old man from Grand Forks” on Aug. 23, 2021, while Morgan-Derosier was jailed.
The 77-year-old was not identified in the transcripts, but he asked Morgan-Derosier to “bring (Morgan-Derosier’s 19- or 20-year-old boyfriend) over to his house to give him a massage,” Jennifer Puhl, a prosecutor in the case who is now the acting U.S. attorney for North Dakota, said during the hearing.
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Jail phone records showed Morgan-Derosier exchanged 72 text messages between Aug. 23 and 24, 2021, with a phone number known to belong to Holmberg. Holmberg would have been 77 years old at the time.
Before the April 2022 story published, Holmberg told The Forum that he texted Morgan-Derosier about patio work and “a variety of things.” Holmberg denied knowing about Morgan-Derosier’s charges and claimed he didn’t know the man was in jail.
When asked about text messages related to a massage, Holmberg said, "I don't know what you're talking about, OK?”
Homeland Security Special Agent Dan Casetta confirmed Wednesday that Holmberg texted the jailed Morgan-Derosier about bringing over his boyfriend for a massage. In one message, Holmberg said he would “trim my nails so I won’t scratch him lol,” according to an exhibit that showed 65 messages Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier exchanged between 3:23 and 5:24 p.m. on Aug. 23, 2021.
Morgan-Derosier suggested in the messages that he was in jail. He talked about “going hard” with lawyers on his child sex abuse case and getting out the next day.
“Um a little too rested,” Morgan-Derosier wrote. “It is boring in here and such a waste of time.”
Morgan-Derosier also told Holmberg that his boyfriend had anxiety and was shy, but Morgan-Derosier was trying to get him to open up, according to the text messages.
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Holmberg said in one message that he respected the boyfriend and wouldn’t pay him since it would make the boyfriend feel bad. Holmberg also texted that he would “love to give him a massage.”
“You pay People you don’t care about, not nice boys,” Holmberg wrote.
Holmberg also texted that he was going to Europe that week. Court records show Holmberg visited Prague when he traveled to Europe from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5, 2021.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that was one of 14 trips during which Holmberg visited a brothel that catered to men “looking to engage in commercial sex with adolescent-age boys.”
Morgan-Derosier said he could clean and seal Holmberg’s patio while the senator was gone, according to the text messages.
“I hope at least (your boyfriend) is still coming up here tonight to get that stuff and his gift,” Holmberg wrote in one of the last messages shown in the court exhibit.
Holmberg resigned days after The Forum published the first text message story. He represented parts of Grand Forks County in the North Dakota Senate from 1977 to mid-2022. The Forum also reported that Holmberg gave Morgan-Derosier a ride to Bismarck in October 2020.
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That’s when Morgan-Derosier spoke with state Consumer Protection Division staff about a construction and check fraud case against him, according to transcripts from the meeting.
Morgan-Derosier is imprisoned at the Talladega, Alabama, Federal Correctional Institution. Holmberg is being held at the Sherburne County Jail in Elk River, Minnesota, while awaiting transfer to a federal facility.
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