South Dakota AG convicted on 2 impeachment charges

UPDATE (AP) – PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – The South Dakota Senate convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg of two impeachment charges stemming from a 2020 fatal accident, removing and barring him from future office.

The votes Tuesday were a stinging rebuke that showed most senators didn’t believe his account of the crash. Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher the night of the crash that he might have struck a deer or other large animal, and has said he didn’t know he struck a man – 55-year-old Joseph Boever – until he returned to the scene the next morning.

Lee Schoenbeck, the chamber’s top-ranking Republican, said there was no question in his mind that was a lie. Ravnsvorg “ran down an innocent South Dakotan,” he said.

Ravnsborg declined to address lawmakers. He has maintained he did nothing wrong.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – Prosecutors at the impeachment trial of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg say he lied to investigators and abused the power of his office after he struck and killed a pedestrian. They are seeking conviction on a pair of impeachment charges that would mean automatic removal from office.

Ravnsborg’s attorneys countered in Tuesday’s opening statements that such an action would improperly undo the will of voters for what Ravnsborg has maintained was an accident.

Ravnsborg struck and killed 55-year-old Joe Boever in September 2020.

Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher that he was in the middle of the road and might have struck a deer, and has said he didn’t know he hit a man until the next day.

Criminal investigators said they doubted some of his statements.