South Dakota impeachment trial will probe AG’s fatal crash

PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota senators on Tuesday start listening to proof for the impeachment of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, whose account of a fatal 2020 traffic accident led legal investigators, some lawmakers and the sufferer’s household to query his truthfulness.

Ravnsborg, a Republican who solely not too long ago introduced he wouldn’t search a second time period, faces two expenses within the state’s first-ever impeachment trial, with conviction on both one triggering fast removing from workplace. Senators may additionally vote on whether or not Ravnsborg needs to be barred from holding future workplace.

Either method, the result will shut a chapter that has roiled state politics, pitting Gov. Kristi Noem towards Ravnsborg and a few in her personal occasion who objected to her aggressive pursuit of his removal.

Ravnsborg was driving house from a political fundraiser after darkish on Sept. 12, 2020, on a state freeway in central South Dakota when his car struck “something,” according to a transcript of his 911 call afterward. He later stated it might need been a deer or different animal.

Ravnsborg stated neither he nor the county sheriff who came to the scene knew that he had struck and killed a man — 55-year-old Joseph Boever — till Ravnsborg returned to the scene the next morning.

Investigators said they doubted some of Ravnsborg’s statements. In earlier testimony to lawmakers, they stated they decided the legal professional common had walked proper previous Boever’s physique and the flashlight Boever had been carrying — nonetheless illuminated the subsequent morning — as he appeared across the scene the night time of the crash.

They additionally recognized what they thought had been small slips in Ravnsborg’s statements, resembling when he stated he rotated on the accident scene and “saw him” earlier than shortly correcting himself and saying: “I didn’t see him.” And they instructed that Boever’s face had come by way of Ravnsborg’s windshield as a result of his glasses had been discovered within the automotive.

Ravnsborg has maintained that he did nothing unsuitable and forged the impeachment trial as an opportunity to clear himself. He resolved the legal case final yr by pleading no contest to a pair of traffic misdemeanors, together with making an unlawful lane change and utilizing a cellphone whereas driving, and was fined by a decide.

The Republican-controlled Senate will hear from impeachment prosecutors, protection attorneys, crash investigators and former members of Ravnsborg’s workers.

It will take 24 senators, or two-thirds of the body’s 35 members, to convict Ravnsborg on both of two articles of impeachment: committing a criminal offense that triggered demise, and malfeasance.

The latter alleges that he misled investigators and abused the ability of his workplace. Investigators stated Ravnsborg requested a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent about what crash investigators may discover on his cellphone. He has stated he was merely in search of factual data.

Noem referred to as for Ravnsborg to resign quickly after the crash and later pressed lawmakers to pursue impeachment. Noem additionally publicly endorsed Ravnsborg’s predecessor, Republican Marty Jackley, for election as his alternative. If Ravnsborg is pressured out, the governor will appoint an interim to fill the submit till the brand new legal professional common elected in November is sworn in.

Ravnsborg has argued that the governor, who has positioned herself for a doable 2024 White House bid, pushed for his removing partly because he had investigated ethics complaints against Noem.

Ravnsborg in September agreed to an undisclosed settlement with Boever’s widow.