The South Dakota chief police officer avoided criminal charges for allegedly assaulting and killing a man with his car over the summer, when he initially said he believed he had hit an animal, such as a deer, officials recently announced.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was charged on Thursday with three misdemeanors and faces up to 30 days in prison and a fine of up to $ 500 on each charge: careless driving, off-road driving and operation motor vehicle while on the phone.
Ravnsborg said he was grateful for the legal system to assume his innocence, while relatives of the man killed in the collision, Joseph Boever, 55, said they were disappointed, but not surprised, that the attorney general was just facing misdemeanor charges.
SOUTHERN MAN’S DAKOTA DEAD IN CRASH INVOLVING AG STATE IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS, JUSTICE
Hyde County Deputy District Attorney Emily Sovell said the evidence simply did not support criminal charges of vehicular homicide or wrongful death, which could mean years in prison. She noted that Ravnsborg was not intoxicated and that a murder charge would have required the state to show that he “knowingly and unjustifiably” ignored a substantial risk.
Jason Ravnsborg, South Dakota Attorney General, speaks during a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Monday, September 9, 2019. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“At best, his conduct was negligent, which is insufficient to bring criminal charges in South Dakota,” said Beadle County Attorney Michael Moore, who helped deal with the case.
THE DESTINATION OF SOUTH DAKOTA AG THAT ALLEGEDLY ATTACKED FATALLY THE MAN WHO PASSES ON THE STREET COULD REST IN THE DETRITES TEST
Public Security Secretary Craig Price, who led the investigation of the accident, said Ravnsborg was distracted before driving to the side of a dark stretch of highway, but did not provide further details. Boever was walking by the side of the road and showing some kind of light when the 2011 Ford Taurus from Ravnsborg hit him, according to Price.
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Ravnsborg released a statement shortly after the accident saying that his vehicle “hit something I believed to be a large animal (probably a deer)”.
Ravnsborg said he called 911 and used his cell phone flashlight to examine a ditch near the area, “but was unable to see anything.”
CALL 911 AT SOUTH DAKOTA AG, SOME FATAL CRASH LAUNCHED
“I looked around the vehicle in the dark and saw nothing to indicate what I had achieved,” he said in the statement. “All I could see were pieces of my vehicle on the road and around it.”
When Sheriff Mike Volek arrived, he also “assessed the damage” at the crime scene and in Ravnsborg’s vehicle, the state AG said.
“At no time did any of us suspect that I was involved in an accident with a person,” continued his statement. Ravnsborg, whose car was too badly damaged to drive, borrowed Volek’s personal vehicle to return home, he said.
Ravnsborg described how he and his chief of staff were driving to return Volek’s vehicle the morning after the scene, when they stopped at the crash site.
“While walking along the shoulder, I discovered Mr. Boever’s body in the grass, close to the road,” he wrote. “[I]It was clear that Mr. Boever had died. “
Boever’s family questioned Ravnsborg’s account and expressed frustration when five months passed while waiting for a recovery decision.
SOUTHERN MAN’S DAKOTA DEAD IN CRASH INVOLVING AG STATE IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS, JUSTICE
Victor Nemec, left, and Nick Nemec pose outside Nick Nemec’s home in Holabird, SD, Friday, January 29, 2021. (AP Photo / Stephen Groves)
Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec said on Thursday that he was “disappointed but not surprised” by the accusations. He called South Dakota’s manslaughter law “weak” and said he hoped his family would take civil action against Ravnsborg.
“I feared that the charge was something like crossing the white line,” said Nemec. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Ravnsborg said in a statement: “I appreciate, more than ever, that the presumption of innocence placed in our legal system continues to work.”
He added that he could not imagine the “pain and loss” of the Boever family.
Moore, the state attorney, said the misdemeanor charges were the “right decision”, but he did not feel well about it.
“Obviously, when a person dies, we want to know what happened. But we are limited by the investigation and the facts, ”he said. “And we can’t force someone to tell us. I mean, there’s nowhere else to go.”
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Despite Ravnsborg’s accusation of using his cell phone, he was not using his device at the time of the accident, officials said. They said the phone records showed that he was using the phone about a minute earlier.
Prosecutors determined from cell phone records that Ravnsborg passed Boever’s body as he walked around the scene of the accident with his cell phone’s flashlight. But Sovell noted that it was a “very dark night” with no road lighting and that there was no evidence that Ravnsborg or the sheriff who responded to the accident saw Boever’s body.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.