Two local convictions overturned after former North Dakota Senator Ray Holmberg pleaded guilty to child sex crimes – Grand Forks Herald

GRAND FORKS – In light of former North Dakota Senator Ray Holmberg's guilty plea to the federal crime of traveling with the intent to commit illicit sexual intercourse, he has been stripped of two local awards he received in recent years.

The first is the Herald's Person of the Year award, which Holmberg received in 2021 for his work during both legislative sessions that year. His work then was “instrumental in securing funds for Grand Forks,” the Herald reported.

Holmberg's legislative career spanned decades – the longest the state legislature has ever seen. Over the years, he has been praised by many. When he announced his impending retirement in 2022, many spoke positively about Holmberg's career, including Governor Doug Burgum, Representative Kelly Armstrong and Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer.

Holmberg has received four awards throughout his career that the Herald could name, including Person of the Year, the Henry Havig Award for community service given to him in 2020 by the Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce, the Energy Champion Award given to him in 2019 by the Energy and Environmental Research Center and the Library Champion Award given to him in 2017 by the North Dakota Library Association.

But the crime Holmberg admitted to on Aug. 8 – paying minors in Prague to perform sex acts with him – overshadows all those good deeds, said Herald editor Korrie Wenzel.

“I don't think there is any good behavior that can outweigh what he pleaded guilty to,” Wenzel said. “We can't allow someone like him, someone with a crime like that, to represent the good that should come with these awards – whether they're ours or anyone else's.”

However, the decision to withdraw Holmberg's award as Person of the Year was not an easy one, said Wenzel.

It was a months-long process to decide if, when and how to revoke the former senator's award, something that had never happened in the ten years the Herald has been regularly honoring “Persons of the Year.”

“We talked about it back in June,” Wenzel said. “But for me it was crucial that he plead guilty or be found guilty before I really wanted to go ahead with it.”

Holmberg was indicted by a grand jury in October 2023 on that charge, as well as another crime that was later dropped as part of a plea agreement.

“We've all been hearing these allegations for almost a year or more, but you still have to wait and see,” Wenzel said. “You can't just jump. But once the guilty plea comes, it's time.”

Holmberg's Person of the Year award was officially revoked in a Herald editorial that appeared online Tuesday afternoon and in Wednesday's print edition.

Following Holmberg's guilty plea, the Herald contacted the other award winners to see if they wanted to rescind Holmberg's awards or make a statement about his crime.

Chamber President and CEO Barry Wilfahrt sent the Herald a written statement Monday morning, Aug. 12, announcing that the Chamber is revoking Holmberg's Henry Havig Award – an award given annually in recognition of those who have made a lifetime of service to the community.

“The Grand Forks-East Grand Forks Chamber of Commerce has revoked the 2020 Henry Havig Award presented to Ray Holmberg as he pleaded guilty to actions that were inconsistent with the Chamber's values,” the statement said.

Messages sent to the EERC and the NDLA were not answered.

Wenzel said that, given such a gruesome crime, he was not surprised that Holmberg was stripped of another award.

“We do not want to be associated with such behavior,” he said.

However, he is neither particularly concerned nor hesitant about awarding the Person of the Year award in the future.

“I believe that the people who are nominated for these types of awards are doing good things for the community, and they're doing it because they're good people,” he said. “But I think that every now and then we see that they're not doing that.”