Crash investigators subpoenaed as part of SD attorney general’s impeachment probe

(CN) — State officials who investigated the 2020 highway collision in which South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a pedestrian with his car will be subpoenaed as part of the ongoing impeachment probe Ravnsborg faces.

The South Dakota House Select Committee on Investigation voted on the subpoenas and quickly adjourned during a five-minute public portion Wednesday of what was a two-day meeting held almost exclusively in executive session.

While the Select Committee conducted most of its activities since Tuesday out of public view, the testimony of the investigators, planned for Jan. 18-19, will be in public. The testimony will take place during the second week of the 2022 session.

It appears the South Dakota House is continuing to slowly move forward with the year-old effort to impeach Ravnsborg, who was first elected in 2018.

"It shows they are at least appearing to do due diligence and talking to witnesses, in addition to the evidence they have in front of them," said Michael Card, associate professor of political science at the University of South Dakota.

On Sept. 12, 2020, Ravnsborg was driving home late in the evening after a fundraiser when he struck and killed Joseph Boever, 55, on U.S. Highway 14. Boever was walking alongside the shoulder of the highway, and the Republican Ravnsborg was soon charged with careless driving, using a mobile electronic device while driving, and failing to stay in his lane on the night of the crash. The careless-driving charge was dropped as Ravnsborg pleaded no contest in August to the other counts.

Because of conflict-of-interest concerns, Ravnsborg's investigation was carried out by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Officials and documents from those offices must be turned over as part of the subpoena approved in an 8-0 vote Wednesday just before 5 p.m. The committee's agenda shows that its members met in executive session beginning Tuesday at 10 a.m. to confer with the committee's attorney, Sara Frankenstein of the Rapid City firm Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore.

It reconvened Wednesday at about 4:35 p.m., quickly voted to authorize the special counsel to subpoena officials and documents from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and others involved in the investigation of the collision. Impeachment at the state level is rare. Mason’s Manual of Legislative Procedure doesn’t cover it, Card said.

Legislators “are having to make it up as they go, as much as the U.S. House of Representatives had to do it in the two Trump impeachments,” he said.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a potential 2024 presidential candidate and fellow Republican, has long called on Ravnsborg to resign.

There is widespread support for giving Ravnsborg the boot. A poll in October found that 66% of voters surveyed believed the Legislature should remove him from office. But he is well liked among local Republicans.

“Ravensborg is a popular figure in the grassroots of South Dakota,” Card said. “He’s gone to almost every Lincoln Day dinner and is well known.”

Ravnsborg is up for reelection in 2022. The state GOP convention will take place June 22-25 in Watertown. Card suggested that legislators may drag the matter out to let the party or voters decide.

The prosecutor faced no felony charges in connection to the crash that killed Boever. In his initial statement to authorities, Ravnsborg reportedly said he thought he had stuck a deer or large animal but was reportedly unclear why he swerved onto the highway shoulder. Ravnsborg claimed that he stepped out of his car after the collision to search the area with a cellphone flashlight. He said it wasn’t until he returned to the scene the next day that he became aware he had struck a person.

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