Man who sexually abused several children and had thousands of child abuse complaints sentenced to 40 years in prison – InForum

FARGO – A Grand Forks man who sexually abused multiple children and possessed thousands of child sexual abuse files has been sentenced to 40 years in a federal prison.

North Dakota U.S. District Judge Peter Welte announced the verdict against 36-year-old Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier on Thursday, May 30, in Fargo. He will likely appeal the verdict.

The verdict marked the end of a case that prosecutors called “particularly egregious” and “monstrous.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for North Dakota said Morgan-Derosier abused several children during his life and possessed more than 6,000 files containing child sexual abuse material.

He knew some of the children and met others online, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Puhl said in court on Wednesday. In some cases, he and another man abused children, court documents show.

“This is a case like no other,” said the prosecutor.

Morgan-Derosier pleaded guilty to several counts of receiving, distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material. He was also accused of bringing two children he knew from the Twin Cities area to his Grand Forks home in August 2019 to sexually abuse them, but the charges were dropped as a result of a plea agreement.

According to court documents, Morgan-Derosier kidnapped the boys from their grandmother’s house without their mother’s knowledge.

He was not charged in federal court over reports that he sexually abused other children. Investigators found several victims, but were unable to locate others, Puhl said.

According to court documents, Morgan-Derosier shared sexually explicit files of children with others online between July 2018 and Sept. 15, 2020. Some of the images and videos depicted infants and toddlers, Puhl said.

Prosecutors said Morgan-Derosier discussed on messaging apps what he would do to the children if he shared the images with others online.

“It is difficult and painful to watch, but the defendant celebrated it,” said Puhl.

The files also included nude photos – the photos were not labeled as child sexual abuse material – of two boys Morgan-Derosier knew and had taken to Grand Forks, Puhl said. He also shared those images online and talked about abusing them, Puhl said.

In some cases, he talked about taking the children to others so that they could sexually abuse them, Puhl said. But that did not happen.

According to court documents, Morgan-Derosier repeatedly abused two girls he knew when he was a teenager. The two victims, now adults, spoke at the sentencing hearing on Wednesday and cried at times as they described the abuse.

“It is shameful to know that someone who was supposed to protect you has abused you over and over again,” said one woman.

Victims of sexual abuse are usually not identified in the forum.

Morgan-Derosier was charged in Anoka County, Minnesota, with sexually abusing one of the children, but the case was dropped in 2008 after the girl recanted her allegations.

That woman testified Wednesday that her mother told her to recant the allegations to protect Morgan-Derosier. In exchange for the recantation and the other girl’s silence, Morgan-Derosier planned to buy the two girls a car, the women said.

The woman who recanted her statement said she was supposed to receive $5,000 for the vehicle but never received it. She said Morgan-Derosier would not have harmed others if she had not retracted her allegations.

“They would not suffer as much as I did,” she said of other victims.

According to court documents, Morgan-Derosier later chatted online with numerous adolescent boys and arranged to meet them to sexually abuse them. In one case, he and another man sexually abused a boy in a tent near Park Rapids, Minnesota, in 2020, court documents say.

The sentencing guidelines call for a prison sentence of between 30 and 120 years for Morgan-Derosier.

“This is someone who feels attracted to someone who wants to have children,” Puhl said in the 30-year-old inquiry.

Morgan-Derosier’s court-appointed defense attorney, Christopher Bellmore, argued for 12.5 years, citing his client’s sense of responsibility, his light criminal record and reports that Morgan-Derosier had been sexually abused as a child.

The fact that Morgan-Derosier was abused is no excuse, but it clouded his ability to distinguish right from wrong, Bellmore said. Morgan-Derosier used material about child sexual abuse as a coping mechanism for past trauma, the defense attorney said.

There is no link between people who are sexually abused that suggests they are likely to abuse children themselves, Puhl said. Abused people tend to have more compassion for victims of child sexual abuse because they do not want others to suffer as they did, she said.

Defendants in child sexual abuse cases often lie about their abuse as children, Puhl said. She advised the court to question Morgan-Derosier’s claims.

“I believe a lot of it is lies,” she said of Morgan-Derosier’s statements about possessing child sexual abuse material.

There is no evidence that Morgan-Derosier sexually abused the boys he brought to Grand Forks, Bellmore said. The chats in which he discussed sexually abusing the boys are troubling, but “they’re just chats,” the attorney said.

“These conversations lack reality,” Bellmore said, adding that communication is usually intended to find people with similar interests.

The sentence is twice as severe as for second-degree murder, noted Bellmore. A sentence of 30 years is excessive, he said.

Josh Duggar, a former reality TV star on “19 Kids and Counting,” was found guilty in 2021 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas on two counts of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material and sentenced to 12½ years in prison, Bellmore said in his plea for the sentence proposed by the defense.

“Ultimately, we demand a fair verdict,” Bellmore said.

In an emotional apology on Wednesday, Morgan-Derosier said his actions had destroyed his relationships. He said he had tried to get help for what he described as an “addiction” but had been unable to access the right resources.

“There is nothing right about this crime,” he said. “Possession of child pornography is wrong.”

Morgan-Derosier said he would do everything in his power to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material and “bring others to justice.”

He was linked to former Senator Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks) through text message transcripts and a Morgan-Derosier investigation into construction fraud.

Holmberg now faces charges in the Federal Court after prosecutors accused him of travelling to Prague to sexually abuse a child and of obtaining or attempting to obtain child sexual abuse material. Holmberg has denied the Federal Court’s allegations.

Holmberg’s case was not mentioned during the sentencing hearing in the Morgan-Derosier case.

Morgan-Derosier’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday afternoon was delayed until Thursday morning, when his sentence was announced. Judge Welte said there was no reason to deviate from sentencing guidelines.

The judge also expressed concerns about the variety of Morgan-Derosier’s prior crimes and the practical nature of the crimes described in the federal case.

“The conduct in this case is convincing,” said Welte.

In a press release issued shortly after the verdict, North Dakota U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider said the sentence was harsh and appropriate, calling Morgan-Derosier’s conduct “monstrous.”

“This defendant abused children online and in real life, and the public is safer now that he is in long-term custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” he said.