The longest-serving senator in North Dakota’s state legislature announced his resignation on Monday following a report that he exchanged text messages with a man jailed on child porn charges.
GOP Sen. Ray Holmberg, 79, who served as the chairman for the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee had just announced last month that he plans to retire at the end of his term on Nov. 30 after 46 years in the state legislature.
However, Holmberg decided to resign effective June 1 after the Forum of Fargo reported last week that he exchanged 72 text messages in August with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier.
Prosecutors allege Morgan-Derosier possessed several thousand images and videos depicting sexually abused children. He also is accused of taking two children under the age of 10 from Minnesota to his Grand Forks home, with the intent of sexually abusing them, according to the Associated Press.
“Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings,” Holmberg said in a news release. “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.”
It is not clear how Holmberg is connected to Morgan-Derosier since the 72 texts were not revealed publicly. He claims that the texts were about “a variety of things,” including patio work Morgan-Derosier did for him and that he had no idea that he was in jail at the time of the text exchanges.
Holmberg recently changed his phone number, and told a reporter that the texts with Morgan-Derosier are “just gone’.
In the wake of the news, a story about a man who claim to be sexually assaulted by Holmberg resurfaced. Caton Todd says Holmberg sexually assaulted him in 2010 after the lawmaker invited him to his condo in Florida. Todd said he had awoken to Holmberg committing a nonconsensual sexual act with his genitalia.
“We’re investigating this. That the two were acquainted and spent time together is not in dispute. Any accusations of inappropriate behavior we dispute,” Holmberg’s attorney Mark Friese said.
Friese said that Holmberg hasn’t been charged with any crime, and there is no indication that he will.
GOP Gov. Doug Burgum said in a statement he “supports Sen. Holmberg’s decision to resign.”
