South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (left) being questioned by investigators. (South Dakota Department of Public Security)
South Dakota’s attorney general – who said he hit a deer after fatally hitting a pedestrian last year – was allegedly wearing the victim’s glasses in the car, according to recently released interviews.
The state Department of Public Security released recordings of investigators questioning Jason Ravnsborg on Tuesday about the September 12 accident that left Joseph Boever, 55, dead.
The footage shows how, during an interview on September 14, detectives told Ravnsborg that they discovered a broken pair of glasses on the floor of the front passenger of their vehicle.
During a second meeting on September 30, interviewers asked about the glasses again, telling Ravnsborg that they had belonged to the victim.
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“It’s Joe’s glasses,” says an agent, referring to Boever. “So that means his face came out of your windshield.”
Upon hearing this, Ravnsborg looked down and sighed deeply, before shaking his head, shows the footage.
“I didn’t see those glasses until you showed them to me,” he said.
The agent told Ravnsborg that “the only way for them to arrive is through the windshield”.
“His face was on your windshield, Jason. Think about it.”
Ravnsborg said he hadn’t seen the glasses until investigators showed them to him – and that he didn’t really realize that he had hit a person at the time of the accident.
“I didn’t see him. I didn’t see anything,” insisted Ravnsborg. “I didn’t know I was a human until the next day.”
An investigator replied that: “Do you think you had the idea that it was something other than a deer?”
“I just believed it was a deer.” Ravnsborg replied. “I make.”
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After the accident, Ravnsborg told authorities that he thought he had hit his 2011 Ford Taurus on a deer or other large animal while driving on US Highway 14 at around 10:30 pm.
He was returning home from a GOP fundraiser at Rooster’s Bar and Grill, where participants had a chance to win a gun engraved with then President Trump’s name, according to the GOP South Dakota website.
The 44-year-old Republican was charged in the incident last week and faces three counts of driving carelessly, driving a motor vehicle while using a mobile electronic device and veering off his track.
Authorities said the evidence did not support more serious criminal raps and that Ravnsborg was not intoxicated at the time of the incident.
Ravnsborg, who was elected to his first term in 2018, was distracted by diverting to Boever, who was walking on the side of the highway, according to accident investigators.
South Dakota House lawmakers started the impeachment process against Ravnsborg on Tuesday, after the interviews and other investigative materials were released.
Lawmakers argued in the impeachment resolution that Ravnsborg should be removed from office for “his crimes or misdemeanors in the office that caused Boever’s death”.
Governor Kristi Noem, also a Republican, asked Ravnsborg to step down just before the impeachment resolution was filed.
“Now that the investigation is over and the charges have been made, I believe the attorney general should resign,” she tweeted. “I have reviewed the material we are releasing as of today, and I encourage others to review it as well.”
But Ravnsborg will not resign, according to his spokesman Mike Deaver.
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“As a lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, AG Ravnsborg has fought for the rule of law and personal freedoms and hopes to have the same right and courtesy,” Deaver said in a statement.