FARGO — After repeated parole violations, former North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg will be jailed while awaiting sentencing for commercial child sexual abuse.

In a ruling on Tuesday, October 29, Judge Daniel Hovland in North Dakota, US, ordered Holmberg to report to the US Marshals Service for detention by 1pm on Friday. Holmberg, an 80-year-old Republican from Grand Forks, has pleaded guilty to a federal charge that said he traveled to Prague several times in the 2010s with plans to sexually exploit children.

Holmberg had been out of custody since he was charged almost a year ago. Prosecutors and the defense agreed during a plea deal in August that several medical conditions constituted exceptional circumstances to continue his parole, despite multiple pretrial felonies.

A complaint filed after Holmberg’s plea hearing suggested he continued to violate the terms of his release just days after Hovland warned him about the behavior. Holmberg gained access to social media, prompting federal prosecutors to question whether the exceptional circumstances still allowed him to stay out of prison.

The defense argued that Holmberg helped monitor news about him and was accidentally sent to social media.

Holmberg has not acted in “good faith” regarding his parole agreement, Hovland wrote on Tuesday.

Holmberg represented Grand Forks in the North Dakota Senate from 1976 to 2022.