Imagine being the Attorney General of the state and you're accused of being involved in a hit and run accident where a man dies. Your job is literally to uphold the laws of the state for everyone. So what do you do? If you're Jason Ravnsborg, a Republican elected in 2018, you refuse to resign or even step aside while police investigate.
Source: Washington Post
Days after South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg fatally struck a man while driving in September, detectives told the Republican official they had found a pair of broken reading glasses inside his Ford Taurus. They belonged to the man he killed.
That was a problem, detectives said, because Ravnsborg, 44, said he didn’t know he had hit a man until the following day, when he returned to the scene and found the body of Joseph Boever, 55, in a ditch.
“They’re Joe’s glasses, so that means his face came through your windshield,” one of the detectives said in an interview released by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety on Tuesday.
Things are so dire for Ravnsborg right now that even the Republican Governor of South Dakota has called on him to do the right thing and resign. Ravnsborg has so far said he won't resign though.
Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s future as the state’s top prosecutor took two major blows Tuesday after Gov. Kristi Noem said he should resign and lawmakers in the House of Representatives started impeachment proceedings.
The developments followed last week’s charges against Ravnsborg in the Sept. 12, 2020 death of Joseph Boever, 55, who was struck by the attorney general's vehicle while walking on Highway 14 West of Highmore.
As she called for his resignation, Noem also promised to release more materials related to the investigation, which happened Tuesday evening with two videos detailing Ravnsborg's interviews with law enforcement.
“Now that the investigation has closed and charges have been filed, I believe the Attorney General should resign," Noem said. "I have reviewed the material we are releasing, starting today, and I encourage others to review it as well.”
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is under pressure to resign after he was charged last week with three misdemeanor counts in the accident that led to the death of a 55-year-old. @LucyKafanov reports.https://t.co/MO1AoLMvSa pic.twitter.com/VtGErz9V4W
— New Day (@NewDay) February 25, 2021
Three misdemeanors you say? Why yes. That's all he's facing right now because there's no such thing as negligent homicide in South Dakota. So, 30 days, pay a small fine and promise that he'll never text while driving again. Or something like that.
South Dakota's AG Jason Ravnsborg was charged with 3 misdemeanors for striking and killing a man with his car in September. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and fines of $500 each.https://t.co/y1l8J54Zjb
— NPR (@NPR) February 20, 2021
