AG fined in S.D. crash death
Deal avoids jail; calls for Republican’s resignation persist
FORT PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg pleaded no contest Thursday to a pair of misdemeanor traffic charges over a crash last year that killed a pedestrian, avoiding jail time despite bitter complaints from the victim’s family that he was being too lightly punished for actions they called “inexcusable.”
Circuit Judge John Brown had little leeway to order jail time. Instead, he fined the state’s top law enforcement official $500 for each count plus court costs of $3,742. Brown also ordered the Republican to “do a significant public service event” in each of the next five years near the date of Joseph Boever’s death — granting a request from the Boever family. But he put that on hold pending a final ruling after Ravnsborg’s attorney objected that it was not allowed by statute.
Ravnsborg said in a statement after the hearing that he plans to remain in office. The plea capped the criminal portion of a case that led Gov. Kristi Noem — a fellow Republican — and law enforcement groups around the state to call for his resignation. But he still faces a likely lawsuit from Boever’s widow and a potential impeachment attempt.
Ravnsborg’s statement accused “partisan opportunists” of exploiting the situation and said they had “manufactured rumors, conspiracy theories and made statements in direct contradiction to the evidence all sides agreed upon.”
Noem, in a statement afterward, pushed the Legislature to consider impeachment and said she ordered the House speaker be given a copy of the investigative file. Impeachment proceedings halted in February after the judge barred state officials from divulging details of the investigation. Lawmakers indicated then that they might resume after the criminal case ended.
The attorney general was driving home to Pierre from a political fundraiser on Sept. 12 when he struck Boever, who was walking on the side of a highway. In a 911 call after the crash, Ravnsborg was initially unsure about what he had hit and then told a dispatcher that it might have been a deer. He said he didn’t realize he had struck a man until he returned to the crash scene the next day and discovered the body of Boever, 55.
Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to making an illegal lane change and using a phone while driving, which each carried a maximum sentence of up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Prosecutors dropped a careless-driving charge.
Ravnsborg didn’t attend the hearing — he didn’t have to and was represented by his attorney, Tim Rensch. That angered Boever’s family.
“Why, after having to wait nearly a year, do we not have the chance to face him?” Boever’s sister, Jane Boever, asked the court.
She said her brother was “left behind carelessly” the night he died. She accused Ravnsborg of running down her brother and then using his position and resources to string the case along. She said he has shown no remorse, and only “arrogance toward the law.”
Jane Boever called the punishment “a slap on the wrist.”
“Our brother lay in the ditch for 12 hours,” she said. “This is inexcusable.”
Boever’s widow, Jennifer Boever, said Ravnsborg’s “actions are incomprehensible and … cannot be forgiven.”
Rensch pushed back hard on the family’s criticism, calling the attorney general an “honorable man.” Rensch said Ravnsborg had been consistent from the beginning that he simply did not see Boever. And he noted that the case was “not a homicide case, and it’s not a manslaughter case.”
“Accidents happen, people die. It should not happen. No one wants anybody to die,” he said.
After a monthslong investigation led to prosecutors charging Ravnsborg with the three misdemeanors in February, Noem put maximum pressure on Ravnsborg to resign, releasing videos of investigators questioning him.
Prosecutors said Ravnsborg was on his phone roughly one minute before the crash, but phone records showed it was locked at the moment of impact.
A toxicology test taken roughly 15 hours after the crash showed no alcohol in Ravnsborg’s system.
Ravnsborg adamantly denied doing anything wrong.
“Joe’s death weighs heavily on me and always will,” Ravnsborg said in his statement. “I’ve often wondered why the accident occurred and all the things that had to have happened to make our lives intersect.”