By: Mary Steurer (ND Monitor)
A committee of lawmakers on Monday rejected a last-minute bill to make legislators and higher education officials mandatory reporters of child sexual abuse in light of new documents that show a University of North Dakota official may have known about sex crimes committed by former Sen. Ray Holmberg.
Holmberg, who served in the statehouse for more than four decades, was sentenced to 10 years in prison late last month after he pleaded guilty to traveling abroad with the intent to have sex with adolescent boys.
The records, which were released by the Attorney General’s Office on Friday and number over 90 pages, show Holmberg emailed UND entrepreneur Bruce Gjovig in February 2011 about the former senator’s preference for young men and boys. Gjovig founded the school’s Center for Innovation, retiring in 2017. Gjovig also held other prominent roles in the community and the Republican Party.
“What think of my twink?” Holmberg asked Gjovig in the email, using a slang term that refers to young, slim men.
Gjovig emailed back, “too young for me, but thanks.”
“No one is ever to young… remember Prague,” Holmberg replied.
Gjovig’s attorney, Cash Aaland, said in a statement that Gjovig believed the comments were exaggerated, “bawdry, locker room” talk.
“Although Mr. Gjovig knew Mr. Holmberg in a professional and personal capacity, Mr. Gjovig was unaware of the criminal nature of Mr. Holmberg’s sexual conduct,” Aaland said in the statement. “Mr. Gjovig condemns Holmberg’s activities in the strongest terms possible.”
Aaland said that Gjovig fully cooperated with law enforcement during the investigation into Holmberg, and that Gjovig is being painted as an accomplice without evidence.
“As a gay man and a Republican, Mr. Gjovig has been an easy mark for political and media attacks,” Aaland stated.
The records also show that Holmberg emailed former state Sen. Nick Hacker in August 2016 about a sexual encounter Holmberg had with someone in Taiwan. Hacker was a State Board of Higher Education member at the time.
Holmberg did not say in the email that the person in question was underage, or that it was commercial sex.
Hacker, who served in the Senate from 2005 to 2008, said that the email was unsolicited and that he did not reply.
“I don’t even recall getting that email,” he said.
Hacker said he met with the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation in 2022 and cooperated with the agency’s investigation of Holmberg, including giving investigators full access to his messages.
“Until I met with BCI in 2022, I was unaware that Mr. Holmberg was a predator of underage children,” Hacker said in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor. “Individuals like him should be fully prosecuted under the law.”
Others employed by the University of North Dakota also received emails from Holmberg, records show.
Sen. Tim Mathern and other North Dakota Democratic lawmakers in a Monday morning press conference urged the Legislature to greenlight a delayed bill to make lawmakers and higher education employees mandatory reporters of child sex abuse.
“In the future, if this comes to your attention and mine, we will know that it’s our responsibility. I think each one of us needs guardrails to help us make good decisions,” Mathern told other senators in a Senate Delayed Bills Committee hearing that afternoon.
The committee voted 4-1 not to forward the proposal, arguing a mandatory reporting requirement is not necessary and that it is too late in the session to accept the bill. Mathern was the only no vote.
Mathern’s peers on the Senate Delayed Bills Committee said they did not feel the bill would make a difference because they did not know of Holmberg’s crimes until he was charged.
“If we would have known something, we would have said something,” said Sen. Jerry Klein, R-Fessenden.
Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, and Sen. Scott Meyer, R-Grand Forks, suggested taking up the proposal next legislative session.
“Who knew or didn’t know, even in the last 90-page report, is just hearsay,” Myrdal said.
The other member of the committee was Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown.
The communications in the report were found on electronic devices seized by law enforcement belonging to Ray Holmberg and another subject, Nicholas Morgan-Derosier. Morgan-Derosier was an associate of Holmberg’s who was sentenced in May to 40 years in prison on child pornography charges.
Members of the committee also said that the higher education system may already have mandatory requirements in place.
A spokesperson for the North Dakota University System said there is no blanket requirement for employees to report sexual abuse, though certain kinds of officeholders and staff have their own reporting mandates. For example, members of the higher education board and employees must report any suspected violations of laws or institutional policies to a designee within the University System.
Statehouse Democrats said during the press conference it is unacceptable that some officials knew or may have known about Holmberg’s conduct years before he was charged with a crime. They said that North Dakota law does not do enough to prevent officials from engaging in, or covering up, crimes against children.
“It’s obvious that just trusting these people to do the right thing is not good enough,” Mathern said. “We owe it to Holmberg’s victims to do something about it.”
The Senate previously defeated a resolution sponsored by Rep. Nico Rios, R-Williston, and the North Dakota Young Republicans that would have called on the 2027 Legislature to make lawmakers mandatory reporters.
It’s not yet clear whether the University of North Dakota has investigated or plans to investigate Holmberg.
“If a report is filed with the university, it would be investigated,” David Dodds, a university spokesperson, said in a statement to the Monitor.
“We are aware and deeply troubled by recent media reports regarding previously sealed federal court documents that were unavailable to the University and were used in the criminal conviction of Ray Holmberg,” Dodds said. “We strongly condemn the actions of anyone who may have enabled Mr. Holmberg’s criminal behavior.”
The University System is drafting a child safety policy that would apply to minors participating in programs that take place on property regulated by the higher education board or are sponsored by the University System, spokesperson Billie Jo Lorius said in an email to the North Dakota Monitor. She said the policy has yet to be approved.
Rep. Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, said during the press conference he hopes the state Legislature isn’t the only body that implements reforms in response to the Holmberg case.
“I think this is a time for all individuals and institutions to carefully reflect on where their failures were in this process,” Ista said.
Mathern also called on his colleagues to put more money in the North Dakota Ethics Commission’s budget for the 2025-2027 fiscal year. He is chair of the conference committee tasked with workshopping final amendments to the budget, Senate Bill 2004.
“This would be a step forward toward justice as we continue to process Holmberg’s vile crimes and uncover more information on what has become the most egregious scandal in our state’s history,” Mathern said.
The Senate initially set aside money for an additional full-time employee for the commission, which would have brought the board’s number of staff up to four. The House cut the funding and also added a new 180-day deadline for the commission to process ethics complaints.
