South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was convicted of 2 Impeachment Charges –

PIERRE, SD (AP) – The South Dakota Senate on Tuesday sentenced Attorney General Jason Rawnsborg to two counts of impeachment in a 2020 car accident in which he killed a pedestrian, immediately removed him from office and returned him.

Ravensborg told emergency services on the night of the accident that he could have collided with a deer or other large animals, and said he did not know he had collided with a man – 55 -year -old Joseph Bower – until he could return to on the road. place. Next morning. Criminal investigators say they do not believe some of Ravensburg’s statements.

The Republican-controlled Senate supported a Republican trial in Ravansborg for a crime that resulted in the death and cruelty of a man for fraud in law enforcement and abuse of his position in authority.

Rawnsborg showed little emotion on his face when the vote on the first article of impeachment reached the senator’s final vote and approved the minimum amount required for reassurance. He covered his face with his hand, as he did in most trials, then wrote a note in a notebook in his pocket.

The sentence requires a two-thirds majority. Rawnsborg, who is in his first term, was the first officer tried and tried in South Dakota history. His successor will be appointed by Governor Christie Noem, who has called for Ravensburg’s impeachment.

When the impeachment trial began on Tuesday, prosecutors asked the question that remained open after the events of the incident in September 2020: Did Ravensborg know he killed someone on the night of the incident?

“He actually saw the man hit a few minutes later,” said Alexis Tracy, a Clay County attorney who heads the prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors also told senators Ravnsborg used his title to “set the tone and gain influence” after the incident, even though he allegedly committed “mistakes and lies” to investigators. incident. The prosecution released an audio clip montage of Ravnsborg who identified himself as Attorney General.

Asked by accident investigators, prosecutor’s attorneys investigated Ravensborg’s alleged mistakes after the accident, including the fact he did not exceed the speed limit, that he contacted the Bower family to offer condolences and who does not sail. His phone on the way home.

Prosecutors shot a series of videos during the closing of the discussion showing Ravansborg changing his account using his phone during interviews with criminal investigators. The Attorney General initially directly denied he used the phone while driving, but later admitted he was looking at his phone minutes before the accident.

Ravensborg said he did nothing wrong and saw the impeachment process as an opportunity for his release. He The criminal case was fixed last year.Traffic violations, including illegal lane changing and refusing to use the phone while carrying a phone, were fined by a judge.

He appeared in the Senate on Tuesday, but he did not testify. His lawyer answered the senators’ questions.

The Attorney General’s defense in his opening speech on Tuesday focused on the consequences of the impeachment and asked lawmakers to consider the impact of their decision on the role of the state government. Ravnsborg heard Ross Garber, a legal analyst and law professor at Tulan University who specializes in impeachment proceedings.

“This is a reversal of the will of the electorate,” Garber told the Senate. “Make no mistake, this is what you will do.”

Investigators felt Rawnsborg’s testimony was meaningless, for example, when he said he turned to the scene and “saw” before quickly correcting himself and saying, “I didn’t see him.” And they said Bover’s face moved from Ravensburg’s windshield when his car mirror was found.

“We heard a better lie as a 5-year-old,” Pennington District Attorney Mark Vargo, who served as an impeachment attorney, told Rawnsborg.

Investigators determined the Attorney General went through Beaver’s body and the lantern Beaver was carrying – still lit the next morning – was watching the scene the night of the accident.

“There’s no way you can go without seeing it,” Arnie Rummel, a North Dakota Criminal Investigation Bureau agent who led the criminal investigation, said Tuesday.

Rummel added that Ravensborg hardly behaves like a deer, a common occurrence on South Dakota’s highways.

Prosecutors also filed Rawnsborg’s exchange with one of his employees three days after the incident, after presenting his phones to incident investigators. Rawnsborg asked a South Dakota Criminal Investigation Division agent about what would happen during his cell phone forensic examination, though the agency should not have been involved in the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest.

“We shouldn’t have been involved,” said Brent Gromer, now a retired agent, as he described why he was bothered by the exchange.

Ravensborg’s attorney argued that the Attorney General did nothing wrong and instead cooperated fully with the investigation of the incident. His attorney, Mike Butler, described any inconsistency in Rawnsborg’s memory due to human error.

Butler denied the testimony of incident investigator Rumel as an “opinion” that would not have been justified in court.

Ravensborg was prepared to undergo a polygraph test, although criminal investigators determined it would not be effective to verify the attorney general’s credibility.

In his final arguments, Butler said the prosecution found no “criminal charges” in Boever’s death and called on senators to refrain from reconsidering the case.

“Fire and sulfur don’t change that fact,” he said.

Noem called for Rawnsborg’s resignation shortly after the incident and later forced MPs to impeach him. Noem also publicly supported Ravensborg’s predecessor in the election of Republican Marty Jackley as his successor.