Ray Man Arrested Again On Federal Child Exploitation Charge
RAY, N.D. (trfnews.i234.me) — A Ray, North Dakota man has been arrested again, this time on a federal child exploitation charge. According to federal court records, 57-year-old Gary Donnelly was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals at his home in Ray on Tuesday, October 21. This marks his second arrest in three years on similar allegations.
A federal grand jury indicted Donnelly on October 8 for receipt of child sexual abuse material. The indictment alleges the crimes occurred between March and August 2022 and orders the forfeiture of two computer hard drives. If convicted, Donnelly faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison.
While the federal indictment contains few details, Donnelly’s case has a long history in Williams County District Court. In 2022, county prosecutors charged him after investigators received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip indicated that child sexual abuse images had been uploaded from Donnelly’s home internet connection.
Officers executed a search warrant and found dozens of illegal images on a laptop at the residence, some involving children as young as toddlers. Donnelly was charged with seven counts of possession and distribution of prohibited material. In 2023, prosecutors filed another case adding 100 additional counts of child exploitation-related charges.
Donnelly’s defense attorney argued that multiple family members used the same computer and that the state could not prove who was responsible. Discovery problems later caused significant delays in the case. In April 2025, Judge Chas Neff Jr. dismissed both state cases with prejudice due to the prosecutors’ repeated discovery violations.
However, federal authorities were not bound by that dismissal. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for North Dakota pursued new charges, resulting in Donnelly’s arrest this week. He is currently being held at the Burleigh/Morton Detention Center in Bismarck and is expected to make his first appearance in federal court on Wednesday afternoon.
The case remains under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service. For more information on how federal child exploitation cases are prosecuted, visit the U.S. Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News.
Gary Donnelly