South Dakota House lawmakers filed an impeachment lawsuit against the state attorney general on Tuesday, who faces misdemeanor charges for striking and killing a man with his car and is already under pressure to resign. A bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a resolution in the House to accuse the state’s top police officer, Jason Ravnsborg, after having indicated that he would not comply with resignations.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
The Republican attorney general faces three counts of misdemeanor, but no crime for the September death of Joseph Boever, 55.
Governor Kristi Noem released videos of Ravnsborg’s two interviews with law enforcement officials on Tuesday. In the videos, investigators confront the attorney general with the horrible details of the accident, at one point saying to him, “His face was on your windshield, Jason, think about it.”
Ravnsborg seemed unsure about many details of the accident, but investigators said Boever’s glasses were found in the Attorney General’s Ford Taurus and bone fragments were found on the side of the highway. As investigators described how his car swerved over the shoulder and hit Boever, causing major damage to the car’s hood and windshield, Ravnsborg looked distressed.
“I never saw him,” he told investigators. “I never saw him.”
KELO-TV, a CBS affiliate, reports that during the first interview, Ravnsborg told investigators that he thought he had hit a deer.
“I’m thinking it’s a deer right now, but I saw it, I didn’t see anything. I didn’t have time to swerve or accelerate or slow down or anything,” said Ravnsborg. “I did not see anything.”
KELO reports that when investigators arrived at the crash site the next day, they said they found a flashlight working next to Boever’s body that was still on. They told Ravnsborg that the light was shining just inches from the road and they didn’t know how he could not have seen it. Ravnsborg repeatedly told investigators that he was driving on the road, not at the shoulder, and that he did not know that he had hit a man until the next day.
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”.
The resolution also stated that Ravnsborg’s conduct after the accident was “inadequate” and his “statements and actions did not meet the standard” of his office.
“When we started to examine and think about the duties that the attorney general owes to the people of South Dakota, I think he has a special duty to protect the people and enforce the laws. And I think that the actions in those incidents fell short of that duty, “said Rep. Will Mortensen, who represents the area where the accident occurred and who sponsored the impeachment resolution.
Just before the impeachment resolution was tabled, Governor Noem asked him to resign. The governor’s spokesman, Ian Fury, said he also supports the impeachment resolution.
“Now that the investigation is over and the charges have been made, I believe the attorney general should resign,” Noem said in a statement.
But Ravnsborg will not resign, according to spokesman Mike Deaver.
“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.
Although Ravnsborg was not convicted of any crime, Mortensen said he felt it was the “right time” to start impeachment after examining the publicly available evidence and prosecutors announced his prosecution decision.
A simple majority in the House would be needed to forward the impeachment charges to the Senate. There, it would take two-thirds of the senators to convict and remove him from office. State law requires senators to wait 20 days from the time the attorney general receives a copy of the impeachment charges before starting the trial. Noem could appoint a replacement if Ravnsborg leaves or is removed from office.
The attorney general, who was elected to his first term in 2018, was driving back to Pierre after a Republican fundraiser in late September 12 when he hit and killed Boever, who was walking by the road. Ravnsborg initially told authorities that he thought he had hit a deer or other large animal and that he searched the extinguished area with a cell phone flashlight. He said he did not realize that he had killed a man until the next day, when he returned to the accident site.
After an investigation that spanned five months, prosecutors said they still had doubts about the accident, but were unable to file more serious criminal actions against Ravnsborg. They accused him of driving carelessly, leaving his lane and driving a motor vehicle while on the phone.
Prosecutors found that he was not using the phone at the time of the accident, but was using it while driving about a minute earlier. The attorney general can face up to 30 days in prison and a fine of up to $ 500 on each charge if convicted.
Michael Moore, the Beadle County attorney who is assisting in the case, said on Monday that when Ravnsborg was interviewed by the police after the accident, he was unclear about what led him to detour to the side of the road and gave in ” several examples of what could possibly have happened. “