By: Amy Dalrymple (ND Monitor)
Newly released call logs show the late Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem communicated with former Sen. Ray Holmberg as the lawmaker was being investigated for sex crimes, including calls the day Stenehjem sat for a law enforcement interview.
Yet Stenehjem only told law enforcement about one phone conversation with Holmberg, according to Attorney General Drew Wrigley, who succeeded Stenehjem after his January 2022 death.
“That’s a pretty troubling log,” Wrigley said late Friday after his office made the call logs public. “The attorney general was asked about contacts with Ray Holmberg. He said that he had spoken to him once, and that was not accurate.”
There also is evidence that Stenehjem and the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation knew years earlier about a sexual assault allegation against Holmberg but no criminal charges resulted from that report.
Holmberg was sentenced late last month to 10 years in federal prison for traveling out of the country with the intent to pay for sex with underage boys. That conviction largely resulted from a federal investigation that began in 2021.
But a man who spoke at the March 26 sentencing hearing came forward to the FBI years earlier to report sexual exploitation by Holmberg.
Handwritten notes in a former Grand Forks prosecutor’s file obtained by the North Dakota Monitor indicate Stenehjem knew in 2015 about that report.
David Jones, former Grand Forks County state’s attorney, wrote in an Aug. 31, 2015, note: “A.G. office doesn’t want T.F. involved at all. (Wayne decision.)”
Jones said he used the initials T.F. as shorthand for a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement task force. The state BCI, within the attorney general’s office, is part of the task force.
Jones’ notes indicate that federal investigators were looking into reports of overseas trips. Jones said he did not talk to Stenehjem directly and does not know why he didn’t want the task force involved.
“If it’s a federal investigation, part of the thing is, we don’t want to step on their toes as they’re going forward with something,” Jones said. “So anything beyond that, it’d just be speculative on my part.”
Holmberg and Stenehjem were known to be friends, both beginning their time in public service in 1977 as Republican state legislators from Grand Forks. Stenehjem went on to become North Dakota’s longest-serving attorney general, and Holmberg spent 45 years in the Legislature, rising to the powerful role of Senate Appropriations chair.
Beth Stenehjem defended her husband in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor.
“It is nothing short of unfortunate that after the release of Wayne’s emails, text messages, and interview with the BCI, there remains misguided focus to find a connection between him and Mr. Holmberg’s criminal activity. As everything has shown, there is none,” she wrote. “This misguided effort is especially disappointing in the fact that Wayne is not here to defend himself against these baseless assumptions and accusations that are nothing but pure speculation.”
Call logs show communications between Holmberg and Stenehjem in December 2021 and January 2022, including connections made on three dates. Holmberg called on Dec. 9, 2021, and they had a 43-second conversation. Holmberg left a 16-second voicemail on Dec. 19, 2021, which law enforcement did not recover, records show. Holmberg called Jan. 10, 2022, and they talked for 11 minutes, the logs show.
A report also shows that federal prosecutors asked law enforcement to compare what messaging apps Holmberg and Stenehjem had on their cellphones that could be used for communication. Both had WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger and others, documents show.
The logs show 11 phone text messages between Holmberg and Stenehjem during December 2021, but not about the investigation. The texts primarily discussed state politics, including who was going to be appointed tax commissioner.
Stenehjem did not report the communications to law enforcement, Wrigley said.
“You’re talking to a guy who is the subject of a very serious investigation,” Wrigley said. “That you’re talking to him at all is an outrage, and on top of it you’re not telling law enforcement that ‘he continues to call me, I talked to him, and he said the following things.’”
Stenehjem, who oversaw the BCI, had not recused himself from the Holmberg case, according to Wrigley.
On Nov. 17, 2021, after law enforcement seized Holmberg’s phone and electronic devices while executing a search warrant at his home, Holmberg asked for Stenehjem’s phone number, Dan Casetta, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, said during Holmberg’s sentencing hearing.
Stenehjem received two calls that day from a number identified in his contacts as “Holmberg Burner Phone,” records show. Both calls were rejected and Holmberg left one voicemail, records show.
Holmberg told Stenehjem in the voicemail that he was in “big trouble,” Casetta testified. Holmberg also tried calling Stenehjem at his office that day and left a message with an assistant. Stenehjem did share that voicemail with law enforcement at the time.
On Dec. 1, 2021, Stenehjem was interviewed by Homeland Security Investigations about the November voicemail, records show.
That same day, call logs show five phone calls between Stenehjem and Holmberg, though the logs do not indicate they spoke. The documents show Stenehjem calling Holmberg once but the call was not answered. Holmberg initiated the other four calls, which were all rejected, documents show. Holmberg left a 14-second voicemail, which law enforcement did not recover, records show.
Holmberg also texted “Hi from Ray” on the day of the former attorney general’s interview with law enforcement, but the records do not indicate Stenehjem responded.
A report detailing the law enforcement interview with Stenehjem has not yet been made public.
Wrigley said he learned from law enforcement that Stenehjem told investigators about one phone conversation he had with Holmberg. When asked what Holmberg said about the search warrant, Stenehjem said it never came up and the conversation had only been about politics, according to Wrigley.
When investigators later reviewed Stenehjem’s phone data, they discovered that the voicemails from Holmberg had been deleted, including the one from the day of the search warrant, Wrigley said.
“Nobody can understand why anybody, let alone an attorney general, would delete evidence that has been collected in the furtherance of a criminal investigation,” Wrigley said. “But that’s what happened.”
Beth Stenehjem said her late husband dedicated decades to North Dakota in a career of public service.
“I am saddened by the current attorney general’s persistent campaign to malign Wayne’s legacy,” she said in a statement. “I’m proud of him, all he accomplished, and the integrity that Wayne brought to the ND Office of Attorney General.”
Mark Friese, Holmberg’s attorney, did not immediately respond to questions related to the call logs. Earlier this month, he declined to comment when asked about Holmberg’s connection to Stenehjem.
Ahead of Holmberg’s sentencing, federal prosecutors revealed for the first time in a sentencing memorandum that a victim had come forward years earlier to report sexual exploitation. The man, who gave a victim impact statement at court, said “for reasons unknown to me” nothing ever came of his report.
Mike Ness, a retired BCI agent, said in a statement he received a report from the FBI in 2015 or 2016 that a victim wanted to talk about sexual acts involving Holmberg, but the man wanted a letter of immunity.
Ness said he sent the information to the director of the BCI, which at the time was Dallas Carlson. Ness, who worked in the BCI’s Grand Forks office, said he also put the FBI in touch with a local state’s attorney.
Carlson said he does not remember whether the BCI received a report about Holmberg.
“I’ve been racking my brain, and I just do not remember,” said Carlson, who is now the U.S. marshal for North Dakota. “Protocol at the time in a situation like this, it would have been ran through the attorney general.”
He added that sensitive cases were referred to the attorney general.
“I don’t recall a letter, to be quite honest, I do not recall a letter. And if there was a letter, which I don’t recall, it would have gone to Wayne,” Carlson said, referring to the former attorney general.
Jones, who was Grand Forks County state’s attorney at the time, kept handwritten notes about the information he received. A note dated July 29, 2015, identifies Holmberg as a suspect and indicates sexual assault allegations from the early 1990s in Grand Forks. The note mentions Holmberg’s role as a state senator and retired school counselor. Jones’ notes also indicate concerns about the statute of limitations.
The document also mentions that the man told investigators Holmberg is “not dealing with local boys” and was now going overseas. The note indicated that Holmberg’s travel was being tracked by the FBI.
Another note in the file indicates the FBI found the man’s report to be credible. “High probability he’s telling the truth,” the note says.
Jones worked with an assistant attorney general on a letter of immunity for the man. The man, who spoke during the sentencing hearing, said he took money from Holmberg at times in exchange for his silence. The North Dakota Monitor does not identify victims of sex crimes.
Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer Klemetsrud Puhl said she looked into the man’s report but did not determine that a federal offense occurred, so she was unable to pursue it.
At the time, she had a conversation with a BCI agent who told her the case had been referred to South Dakota for investigation, Klemetsrud Puhl said.
When Wrigley became attorney general, he said he also was told that the 2015 report about Holmberg had been referred to South Dakota for investigation.
But a spokesperson for the agency in the neighboring state that would have handled the referral — the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation — told the North Dakota Monitor the agency has no record of such a request.
Jones said his role was primarily to assist with the letter of immunity and he didn’t receive any additional law enforcement reports about Holmberg.
“I assumed that they were going to do their investigation and move it along, which obviously they did,” Jones said.
Ness said the BCI was not asked to investigate. He said he later learned from a county official that the statute of limitations had expired.
But one allegation the man told the FBI involved a sexual assault that occurred in Bismarck in 2012, according to the prosecutors’ sentencing memo. It’s unclear if this information was shared with local authorities. Jones’ notes only mention the 1990s allegations.
A spokesperson for the FBI said the agency doesn’t comment on how it handles complaints.
Burleigh County State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer said her office has no record of Holmberg as a suspect at any time. The Bismarck Police Department has no record of any investigations involving Holmberg, said Lt. Luke Gardiner.
Lori Cohen, an attorney who leads the organization known as PACT, or Protect All Children from Trafficking, said she’s seen a pattern in which predators are often given a pass, particularly if the predator is in a position of power.
“There is a tendency to protect the predator rather than the victim, and that then allows the predator to continue to harm other victims,” Cohen said. “I think this conviction sends a message that it has to stop, but we need to stop it earlier. We need to stop it before more children are harmed.”
Klemetsrud Puhl said without the man’s early report about Holmberg, “it would have been very difficult to proceed” with the investigation that ultimately led to his federal conviction.
“He’s the first one that came forward and it was him affirmatively reporting to law enforcement about what happened at a time when nobody suspected anything,” she said.
