A powerful former North Dakota MP was once sentenced to a 10 -year -old trip to Europe on Wednesday with the intention of paying for sex with a minor.
Former State Senator lawyer Ray Holberg, Mark Frisz, confirmed the sentence to the Associated Press, but declined to comment after the hearing reported Kfgo Radio, included seven hours of testimonies, a victim’s statements and an apology from the channeled 81-year-old.
Holberg pleaded guilty last year in the US District Court in Fargo, North Dakota, for a single trip with the intention of engaging in illegal sexual activity.
KFGO reported that during Wednesday’s hearing, defense and prosecutor’s office agreed that Holberg should serve for about three years because of his age and poor health, but federal judge Daniel Howland said Holmbberg was still a threat to minor boys. Hovland called Holberg’s hero “delightful and contemptible” and said that a 37-month sentence would not deter others.
While Holberg denies actually having sex with anyone under 18, Hovland said he could “read between the lines,” the radio reports.
Prosecutors said Holberg traveled at least 14 times from 2011 to 2021 to Prague, Czech Republic to pay for sex with boys of adolescence. In court last year, Holmbberg admitted that he was paying young men’s massages, some of which had sexual contact in a supposed mess. But he claims he doesn’t know for sure how old they are.
The acting American lawyer Jennifer Klemmeta Poka said the crime was “an attack on the dignity of many young boys.” And the leaders of the majority and minorities in North Dakota’s legislation describe Holberg’s crimes as a “evil” in a statement that promised additional resources to law enforcement to help increasing criminal sexual abuses and trafficking in human beings, KFGO reported.
Holberg served for 45 years in the Senate of North Dakota. He resigned in 2022 after the Fargo-Moorhead forum reported his many text messages with a man in prison in connection with materials for sexual abuse of children. Holberg chaired two powerful legislative panels, including the Senate Budget Committee.
Records received earlier by the Associated Press show that Holberg has made dozens of trips to the United States and in other countries since 1999. Destinations include cities in more than 30 states, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway. At least one of Holberg’s trips to Prague was funded by the state through a teacher exchange program, Klemetsrud Puhl reports in court files last week.
“Holberg’s missed behavior for decades … can only be described as corruption,” she writes. “That is, he uses his position to serve his own goals.”
In one example, the prosecutor described Holberg, brought a student at the University of North Dakota to the President of the University of Hockey Games, representing “right to access some of the most influential people in the country” – including the President of the UN, the Governor and the Congress – with his expectation of engaging with sexual activity with Holmber activity.
In 2012 and 2013, Holberg posed as a teenager in an online chat for teenagers who have undergone circumcision and misleaded and manipulate a 16-year-old Canadian boy to send him explicit photos, the submission said.
The full story of the relationship is unclear, since later the boy takes his life in 2021, “but without a doubt Holmbberg’s behavior contributed to his struggles,” said Klemmet Poom.
Former US lawyer Tim Parsen said that the acts described in the prosecutor’s filing was drawing a picture of the judge for the overall character of Holberg.
“What we see here is a defendant, who has decades of attempt to identify extremely vulnerable young men, raise them and ultimately use them for sex,” Parsen said.