A former Republican senator has pleaded guilty to traveling to Europe with the intention of having sex with minors.
Former North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg told federal court Thursday that he engaged in sexual activity with young male massage therapists during visits to the Czech Republic.
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The 80-year-old noted that while he paid for his victims, he was not sure how old they were or how many interactions he had with them.
Holmberg was charged last year with traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual activity.
The incident occurred between June 2011 and November 2016.
He used taxpayer money for several trips to Europe during this period, with at least three to Prague, according to travel records released by the North Dakota School Boards Association after his indictment.
The disgraced politician was also accused of receiving and attempting to receive child sexual abuse material.
However, in a plea agreement he signed in June, Holmberg agreed to plead guilty to the charge of traveling to Europe to have sex with minors and the prosecution would move to dismiss the latter charge.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors would also have to recommend a lower sentence, with the maximum sentences being 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release.
Prosecutors will likely recommend three to four years in prison, Holmberg’s attorney, Mark Friese, said when the deal was reached. AP News.
As part of the settlement, the former high school counselor will also have to register as a sex offender.
Holmberg admitted in the agreement that he “repeatedly traveled from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Prague, Czech Republic, with the motivating purpose of engaging in commercial sex with juveniles under the age of 18.”
VILLA VILLA
Assistant US Attorney Jennifer Puhl told the court that the former politician made 14 trips to Prague between 2011 and 2021, where he regularly visited a villa.
This residence was described by someone he traveled with as a brothel with teenage masseuses.
Another traveling companion told investigators that he paid for Holmberg’s overnight stay at the villa, so his name was not on the record.
The Republican’s admission stated that he found the villa online and that he engaged in sexual activity with “some of them.”
He added that the Czech Republic has a younger age of consent than the US and that he did not recall traveling to any other country for the same purpose.
Career of Ray Holmberg
Ray Holmberg served in the Senate from 1976 to 2022 for the Republican Party and was the longest-serving senator in the country.
He took office on December 1 in District 17, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
During his political career, he was president of the Legislative Management Commission.
Holmberg was also chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which determined budgets.
Meanwhile, between 1967 and 2002, he worked as a teacher, school counselor, and ‘child search coordinator’ at Grand Forks Public Schools.
He also chaired the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.
“I’ve been to several countries and the only one that stands out is the Czech Republic,” he said.
Holmberg’s guilty plea was accepted by judge Daniel Hovland and the politician was released.
Conditions of his release included the surrender of his passport, location monitoring and travel restrictions.
When asked by the judge how he “got involved in this lifestyle”, the grandfather of five said: “It was just something – I don’t want to say I fell into… that I did.”
“It was after retirement that any of these activities occurred,” he said.
Holmberg retired from Grand Forks Public Schools in 2002 while continuing his political career.
In November, he was told by a North Dakota Department of Public Instruction panel that his lifetime teaching license was suspended and would be “immediately revoked” upon any guilty plea or conviction.
The Republican senator served in the Senate from 1976 until the summer of 2022.
Although he had already announced that he would not seek re-election, he resigned before the end of his term, when a report from the The Fargo-Moorhead Forum claimed to have exchanged more than 72 text messages with a man arrested for child sexual abuse material.
The trial was set for September and he initially pleaded not guilty.
Holmberg declined to comment at the end of Thursday’s hearing.
The single politician is expected to be sentenced sometime in the fall.
‘SCANDAL’ MILESTONE
Holmberg’s case is “the most significant political scandal in North Dakota history,” former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon said, according to AP News.
“You have a very prominent politician. You have literally the worst allegation you could come up with, the sexual abuse and rape of a child,” he said.
“And then you get the idea that the tax money paid for the plane ticket.”
Meanwhile, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley called the guilty plea “an important milestone in North Dakota’s battle against child sex trafficking.”
“Former State Senator Ray Holmberg has admitted to his heinous crimes and is now convicted of conduct that fuels the domestic and global sexual exploitation of children,” he added.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
