The longest-serving member of the North Dakota Senate, Republican Ray Holmberg, is stepping down as chair of an influential committee because he was texting with a jailed alleged child pornographer, the Associated Press reports.
Jailhouse records show Holmberg, who is 79 years old, exchanging six dozen messages with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier while Morgan-Derosier was being held at Grand Forks County Jail on child porn charges last August. The jail recorded the times the text messages came in and went out, but they did not record the contents of the messages.
The local newspaper, the Forum of Fargo, obtained the jail records showing the exchange. Holmberg told the newspaper he no longer had copies of the text messages, although he said Morgan-Derosier had done some yard work for him previously. “They’re just gone,” he said.
Holmberg stepped down from the chair of the senate’s Legislative Committee, through which virtually every piece of legislation in the senate may run, meaning that its members could kill any bill they don’t like. He will stay on the committee, but not serve as chair. Holmberg had announced in March that he would not seek reelection.
The Forum of Fargo reports that Holmberg has also retained the services of a criminal defense attorney.