ND lawmaker’s state-owned devices seized after inmate texts

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former North Dakota state senator who resigned following a report that he traded scores of text messages with a man jailed on child pornography charges says he was unable to return his state-owned laptop and iPad because they were seized by law enforcement. Ray Holmberg, North Dakota’s longest-serving state senator, resigned June 1. He turned in his parking pass and an electronic key card but not the state-owned electronics. Law enforcement searched Holmberg’s Grand Forks condominium on Nov. 17.  The search came about three months after Holmberg exchanged 72 text messages with Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, who was in jail.