PIERRE, SD – Lawmakers at South Dakota House on Tuesday began impeachment proceedings against the state attorney general, who is accused of beating and killing a man with his car and who is already under pressure to expel. to act.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a resolution in the House to impeach the state’s top law enforcement officer Jason Ravnsborg after he indicated Monday that he would not heed calls for his resignation.
The Republican Attorney General is facing three felony charges, but no felonies, in the death of 55-year-old Joseph Boever in September.
Lawmakers argued in the impeachment resolution that Ravnsborg should be removed from office for “his crimes or offenses in office that result in death” of Boever.
The resolution also stated that Ravnsborg’s behavior after the crash was “inappropriate” and that his “statements and actions were not up to the standard” of his office.
“When we started to look and think about the duties that the attorney general owes to the people of South Dakota, and I think he has a special duty to protect the people and obey the laws. And I think actions in these incidents fell short of that duty, ”said Representative Will Mortensen, who represents the area where the crash occurred and who sponsored the impeachment solution.
Shortly before the impeachment resolution was filed, Gov. Kristi Noem called for him to resign. The governor’s spokesman, Ian Fury, said she also supports the impeachment resolution.
“Now that the investigation is closed and charges have been filed, I think the attorney general should resign,” Noem said in a statement.
But Ravnsborg’s will not resign, said spokesman Mike Deaver.
“As a lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the military reservations, AG Ravnsborg has fought for the rule of law and personal freedoms and hopes he will receive the same right and courtesy,” Deaver said in a statement.
Although Ravnsborg has not been convicted of any crime, Mortensen said he felt it was “the right time” to begin impeachment after reviewing publicly available evidence and prosecutors announcing their charges.
It takes a simple majority in the House to bring the charges of impeachment to the Senate. There it would take two-thirds of the senators to convict and remove him from office. Under state law, senators must wait 20 days from when the attorney general receives a copy of the impeachment charge before the trial begins. Noem could appoint a replacement if Ravnsborg leaves or is fired.
The attorney general, who was elected to his first term in 2018, was driving home from a Republican fundraiser to Pierre on Sept. 12 when he beat and killed Boever, who was walking along the roadside of the highway. Ravnsborg initially told authorities he thought he had hit a deer or other large animal and said he searched the unlit area with a cell phone flashlight. He said he didn’t realize until the next day that he had killed a man when he returned to the scene of the accident.
After an investigation that lasted more than five months, prosecutors said they still had questions about the crash, but could not file more serious charges against Ravnsborg. They accused him of careless driving, leaving his lane, and driving a motor vehicle while on the phone.
Prosecutors found that he was not using his phone at the time of the crash, but had used it while driving about a minute earlier. The attorney general can face up to 30 days in prison and a fine of $ 500 for each charge if convicted.
Michael Moore, the Beadle County State attorney who is assisting the case, said Monday that when Ravnsborg was interviewed by police after the crash, he was not clear what had prompted him to divert to the roadside of the highway. several examples of what could possibly have happened. “
Noem released videos of Ravnsborg’s two interviews with police late Tuesday. In the videos, investigators confront the Attorney General with the gruesome details of the crash, and at one point told him, “His face was in your windshield, Jason, think about that.”
Ravnsborg seemed unsure of the many details of the crash, but investigators told him that Boevers’ glasses had been found in the Attorney General’s Ford Taurus and bone scrapings were found on the roadside of the highway. As the investigators described how his car swayed on the shoulder and hit Boever, causing extensive damage to the hood and windshield, Ravnsborg appears distressed.
“I’ve never seen him,” he told the detectives. “I’ve never seen him.”