UPDATE JANUARY 20, 2022:
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Criminal investigators are telling South Dakota lawmakers that they didn’t believe the state’s attorney general when he told them he never saw the body of the man he fatally struck on the night of the 2020 crash. Investigators said they doubted the Republican attorney general’s insistence that he thought he hit an animal on Sept. 12, 2020. Ravnsborg says he didn’t realize he struck 55-year-old Joseph Boever until returning to the scene the next day. But the investigators determined that Ravnsborg would have walked right past Boever’s body and the flashlight he had been carrying as he looked around the crash scene that night.
UPDATE JANUARY 19, 2022:
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is slamming how fellow Republicans are handling an impeachment probe of the state’s attorney general for his role in a fatal car crash. Noem told The Associated Press on Wednesday (Jan. 19, 2022) that a South Dakota House investigative committee is “attacking the integrity of our law enforcement officers,” adding that it was an “inappropriate” and “tragic” use of the committee’s attention. Noem’s comments expose a political divide among the Republicans who control state government. Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed a man walking along a highway in 2020. The House investigative committee is sifting through the crash investigation as it weighs whether he should face impeachment charges.
UPDATE JANUARY 19, 2022:
The House Select Committee investigating the night Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed Joe Boever met for several hours yesterday afternoon (Jan. 18, 2022) to question law enforcement involved with the crash reconstruction.
Much of the meeting was spent asking South Dakota Highway Patrol officers questions about the mechanics of the investigation and why they did or didn’t do certain things. A common line of questioning was about where Joe Boever was walking that night. Crime recreation expert John Berndt and the officers answered that they were 95 to 100 percent certain Boever was walking on the shoulder of the road. They were also confident that all four of the Attorney General’s tires crossed over the rumble strips and he was driving on the shoulder.
The committee will meet again today to further question law enforcement officers about their findings.
DECEMBER 22, 2021:
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota legislators are set to meet next week to deliberate whether Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg should be impeached in connection with a fatal car crash. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports that a select committee of nine House members will convene on Tuesday and Wednesday (Dec. 28-29, 2021). Ravnsborg struck and killed pedestrian Joseph Boever near Highmore last year. The attorney general pleaded no contest in August 2021 to a pair of misdemeanors in connection with the crash. He said he was driving in the middle of the highway but investigators contend he was on the shoulder. Select committee member Rep. Jon Hansen said he doesn’t know what the committee might recommend and much depends on where Ravnsborg was when he hit Boever.
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