Ravnsborg is currently facing trial in the South Dakota Senate, which will decide whether the state’s top law enforcement official will retain his job and be eligible for a future term. He is the first South Dakota official to be referred, the Associated Press reported. The question is whether the attorney general was responsible for the death of 55-year-old pedestrian Joseph Boever and whether Ravnsborg misled the police immediately after the incident. In August, Ravnsborg did not plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor traffic in connection with the accident and avoided jail time. “The House of Representatives has voted and I respect the procedure, but I look forward to the Senate trial where I believe I will be vindicated,” said Ravnsborg, who has been suspended pending the outcome of the trial. in The Washington Post. Republicans overwhelmingly control both Parliament and the Senate. A day before the House vote, Ravnsborg sent a letter urging members to vote against his resignation, saying it could “overturn an election and set a dangerous precedent for all South Dakota elected officials.” He also said that he was thinking of Boever every day and had apologized to his family. However, Parliament finally voted 36 to 31 in favor of the referral. The vote went against the recommendation of a special committee that Ravnsborg had not committed a crime that could be charged. During the special session on Tuesday, few defended Ravnsborg. Republicans and Democrats urged their colleagues to send the matter to the Senate for trial. “Never in the history of our state has there been a government official who has criminally ended the life of one of our citizens and refused to resign,” said spokesman Will Mortenson (R), who introduced the citation articles. . “This is a serious and extraordinary situation.” Eight Democrats and 28 Republicans voted in favor of the motion, while 31 voted against. came from Republicans, the AP reported. Ravnsborg came under intense pressure to resign, including from Republican Gov. Christie L. Noem, after recordings raised questions about whether Ravnsborg left the scene knowing he had hit someone. Shortly after the September 12, 2020 incident, Ravnsborg issued a statement saying he first believed he had been struck by a deer, left the scene and returned the next day to find Boever dead in a ditch. The recordings revealed that Boever’s glasses had been found inside Ravnsborg’s car, although the attorney general denied seeing them. “His face was on your windshield, Jason. “Think about it,” a detective told him on one of the recordings. South Dakota AG was pressured by critics to resign for new information in a car accident: “He knew what hit and he lied” However, Ravnsborg refused to resign. In a letter to members of parliament, the attorney general said the incident did not deter him from performing his role, including conducting “multiple ongoing investigations” into Noem. Ravnsborg did not provide details about these detectors. But in September 2021, months after Noem demanded Ravnsborg’s resignation, the attorney general said he was reconsidering concerns that Noem had helped her daughter secure a real estate license, Argus Leader reported. The governor, in turn, urged people to “ignore AG’s strange letter.” “The Attorney General wants to do this for me to divert the attention of members of Parliament, when the question before them is whether he should be the highest law enforcement officer in the state,” Noem wrote on Twitter. After the vote, he added that the House “did the right thing” for the people of South Dakota and the Boever family. Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec told The Post he was pleased with the House vote. “I would have hoped for more room, but he is being accused,” he said. The Senate must now wait 20 days for the Ravnsborg trial to begin. “I hope they find him guilty,” Nemec said.
