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North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator says he will leave office after more than 40 years in office in the wake of reporting that last year he exchanged 72 text messages with a jailed landscaper accused of possessing child pornography.
“Recent news stories have become a distraction for the important work of the legislative assembly during its interim meetings,” state Sen. Ray Holmberg said in a statement earlier this week,according to North Dakota newspaperThe Forum.
“I want to do what I can, within my power, to lessen such distractions,” Holmberg continued. “Consequently, in respect for the institution and its other 140 members, I shall resign my Senate seat effective June 1, 2022.”
Records from the Grand Forks County Jail — where Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier was held in August 2021 whilefacing chargesof allegedly possessing child pornography and of sexual abuse, according to theForum— show the two menexchanged 65 text messagesover the course of two hours and seven more messages a day later.
Holmberg told the paper that the messages were related to “a variety of things,” including work done on the senator’s patio over the course of a year and a half. He also said he no longer had the messages.
Asked what happened to the texts, he said, “They’re just gone,“The Forumreports.
Holmberg said he’s known Morgan-Derosier for two years and that he’d been to the senator’s home for drinks “a few times, coffee and stuff.”
He also said he did not know Morgan-Derosier was in jail when the messages were sent in August 2021.
Federal court records show Morgan-Derosier remains held pending trial, scheduled for September, on charges of receipt and distribution of child pornography, transportation of a minor, travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity and other crimes.
A member of the federal public defenders' office, which is listed as representing Morgan-Derosier, declined to comment to PEOPLE on any aspect of the case or Morgan-Derosier’s past text messages, citing policy.
The Forumreported that Morgan-Derosier initiated the text exchange with Holmberg on the first day (when the bulk of the messages were sent and received) and that the senator responded less than a minute later.
On the second day (when just seven messages were exchanged), the first message came from Holmberg’s number. The two men sent an equal number of messages, according to jail records, the paper reports.
“To my knowledge Sen. Holmberg has not been charged with any crimes,” his attorney Mark Friese tells PEOPLE. “We are investigating the allegations against Sen. Holmberg, and until that process is complete, I’m unable to comment beyond the statement Sen. Holmberg made [about his decision to resign].”
Holmberg, a Republican, was first elected to the North Dakota Senate in 1976. In March, he announced he would retire this year, citing medical issues that “do not afford me the cognitive ability to accurately perform the work required and expected of a senator to represent the people of Grand Forks in the 2023 legislative session.”
North Dakota’s Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, said in a statement that he “supports Sen. Holmberg’s decision to resign,” according to the Associated Press.
source: people.com
