Wayne Stenihjem deleted voicemail, “obstructed” sexual crime investigation in Ray Holberg, AG says – Inforum

Fargo – The Late

Prosecutor General of North Dakota Wayne Stenehjem

obstructed an international investigation of sexual crimes for children in his close friend

State Senator Ray Holberg

By deleting vocal messages, the most important law officer said.

Lawyer General of Northern Dakote, Drew Wrigley revealed this week that his predecessor told federal investigators in December 2021, that he only spoke with Holberg, while the senator was investigated. The telephone records revealed three calls between Stenihjem and Holmberg both before and after the interview, Wrigley said.

“You do not have to tell them about the three calls that morning and not tell them about the three calls after -” said Wrigley. “Why not mention these six attempts or phone calls when you are explicitly asked:” Did you talk to him? “”

Calls between the two Republicans were short, Wrigley said. One was 14 seconds, and a second was 19 seconds, he said.

Wrigley also said that Stenehjem deleted three voice messages from Holmberg, including one he shared with law enforcement. Special internal security agent Dan Castta repeated

that vocal message

Wednesday, March 26, at the US District Court of North Dakot

“Wayne. This is my burner phone. I have big problems. Don’t tell anyone.”

The other two messages have not been taken over and cannot be taken over, Wrigley said.

“We will never know what was in the other two vocal messages that Wayne did not tell the investigators and did not share with them,” Wrigley said.

Northern Dakota’s American prosecutor’s office provided a great jury voter against Holberg at the end of October 2023

Regarding the accusations that he has traveled to Prague several times between 2011 and 2016, with plans to sexually abuse children. It also faced the charge of receiving or trying to receive sexual abuse for children, but this number was rejected after

Holmberg was pleaded guilty

to the tax related to Prague.

American district judge Dan Hovland sentenced Holberg on Wednesday, 81 years old, to 10 years in prison.

Investigators began to look at Holberg against the background of statements that he was watching sexual abuse for children, cared for young men and made sexual comments about children, according to cassett.

Agents searched their house on November 21, 2021,

And he confiscated several electronic devices, including a laptop, iPad and mobile phone, Castta said.

Holmberg has left the voicemail for stenehjem after the search, leading investigators to identify the Attorney General as

Witness in the file, according to Wrigley.

Stenihjem did not refuse

Wrigley said he himself, despite being known as a close friend of Holberg.

Wrigley said he was “very disturbed” by Stenihjem’s actions. The General Prosecutor’s Office supervises the Criminal Investigation Bureau of North Dakota. The BCI investigates the sexual crimes of children, both at the state level and in assistance to federal agencies.

“It’s called justice obstruction,” Wrigley said.

The deletion of stenhjem of the vocal messages left by Holmberg adds another stain in the inheritance of the regretted prosecutor. Stenehjem first took over the position of the best official of the law in 2000. He was popular among his colleagues and voters.

He

He died unexpectedly on January 28, 2022, at 68.

Two men contracted to reshape the Stenihjem’s bathroom found him unanswered and “cold to the touch” on the floor in Bismarck’s house, according to a police report.

The report said that Stenehjem returned from the holiday with a few days due to an “undisguised disease”.

An autopsy was not performed but his family was assigned

His death at cardiac arrest.

Then the governor Dakota, Doug Burgum,

called Wrigley

As a substitute for Stenihjem on February 8, 2022. In his first hour as a general prosecutor, Wrigley was informed about Holmberg’s investigation, Wrigley said.

He said he had the case a maximum priority and was surprised when he learned that Stenehjem did not recur from the case.

“It was an unparalleled decision not to,” Wrigley said. “Their relationship was manifested in this case.”

In the middle of 2022, Wrigle discovered that

Liz Brocker, Stenehjem’s spokesman,

He asked for an employee of state information technology to delete the Enehjem’s emails the day after his death.

“We want to make sure that no one has the opportunity to make an open registration request for his E -Emails, especially since he kept everything,” Brocker wrote in a Email.

E -mails were deleted on January 31, 2022 and

It was believed at one point as unrecoverable.

Brocker resigned.

In March 2024,

Wrigley revealed a copy of the -emails

It was done when Stenehjem’s wife or Brocker asked BCI shortly after his death to unlock his phone to recover personal information for his burial.

The signal to delete the E -emails did not reach the Stenihjem’s phone, Wrigley said. He said a computer BCI makes a copy of a device when its technology unlocks it.

E -mails have not revealed anything

About Holmberg case, according to a forum analysis.

Holmberg also called at Stenehjem’s office after the search and asked to talk to him, Castta said. An administrative assistant said the Attorney General is not available, so Holmberg told him to “whisper in his ear” that “Nick the Thief did it again.”

He was referring to

Nicholas Morgan-Derosier,

which executes a penalty with a 40 -year federal imprisonment for trading sexual abuse for children. Prosecutors also claimed Morgan-Derosier sexually abused by children for decades, although he has not been convicted of these charges.

Forum reported in April 2022

That Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier were sent to each other 72 times at the end of August 2021, when Morgan-Derosier was closed with material accusations of sexual abuse. Holmberg asked Morgan-Derosier to bring his young adult lover for a massage, Castta said.

After the report of the forum,

Holmberg and resigned

From the senate seat he held since 1977. The Grand Forks man was the head of the Senate Credit Committee.

In 2020, Morgan-Derosier, who owned Team Lawwn and Landscaping, also reported with Holberg that the landlord’s employees stole $ 8,800 from Holmberg’s Safe, while working on his terrace, according to the Grand Forks Police Department. Holmberg’s lawyer Mark Friese suggested in court that Morgan-Derosier had stolen the money.

Holmberg refused to press accusations.

Holmberg has followed sexual abuse for children with Morgan-Derosier, federal prosecutors said. The landscapeist also asked one of his employees to have sex with Holberg in exchange for a landscape arrangement contract, Castta said.

In October 2020,

Holmberg gave Morgan-Derosier a walk to Bismarck

To talk to the personnel of the Consumer Protection Division, also, in the aspect of Stenihjem, about a construction and verification of the fraud case against it, according to the transcripts of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Consumer Protection Director, Parrall Grossman, asked Stenehjem’s mobile phone number before the meeting, saying that the Grand Forks police must contact the senator for a Morgan-Derosier investigation, according to the prosecutor’s e-mail.

Grossman told Stenihjem in an email from June 2021 that a judge signed an order that prevented Morgan-Derosier from working as Team Lawn.

“Good work,” Stenihjem replied. “Let us hope that this will bring this problem to a conclusion.”

Wrigley said Stenehjem’s actions are doing it emotionally, because Stenehjem once had Wrigley’s job.

“It is an obstruction of the process of not being in effect when it was interrogated and this is obviously the case, comparing what he said with what was on his phone,” said Wrigley. “It is indescribable to destroy evidence.”