The South Dakota House of Representatives voted Tuesday to impeach Attorney General Jason Ravensborg (right) over a September 2020 incident in which Ravensborg left the site of a fatal collision, later claiming he thought he had hit a deer .
Ravnsborg is now facing trial in the South Dakota Senate, which will decide whether the state’s senior law enforcement official will keep his job and qualify for a future post. He is the first South Dakota employee to ever be impeached, the Associated Press reported.
The question is whether the chief prosecutor is responsible for the death of 55-year-old pedestrian Joseph Bower and whether Ravnsborg misled law enforcement officers immediately after the incident. In August, Ravnsborg pleaded not guilty to two counts of trafficking in connection with the incident and avoided jail.
“The House of Representatives is voting and I respect the process, but I look forward to the Senate trial, where I believe I will be acquitted,” Ravnsborg, who was removed pending the outcome of the trial, said in a statement on Tuesday. The Washington Post.
Republicans have overwhelming control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The day before the House of Representatives vote, Ravensborg sent a letter urging members to vote against his impeachment, saying it could “cancel the election and set a dangerous precedent for all elected officials in South Dakota.”
He also said he thinks of Boever every day and apologizes to his family.
But the House eventually voted 36 to 31 in favor of impeachment. The vote was against the recommendation of the special commission’s findings that Ravnsborg had not committed an impeachment offense.
During a special session on Tuesday, few defended Ravnsborg. Members of the Republican and Democratic Chambers called on their colleagues to send the matter to the Senate.
“Never before in the history of our country has a civil servant criminally ended the life of one of our citizens and refused to resign,” said spokesman Will Mortenson (R), who introduced the members to impeachment. “This is a difficult and extraordinary situation.”
Eight Democrats and 28 Republicans voted in favor of impeachment, while all 31 voted against he came from the republicans, AP reported.
Ravensborg was under strong pressure to resign, including from Republican Gov. Christie L. Noem, after the recordings raised questions about whether Ravensborg had left the scene knowing he had hit someone. Shortly after the September 12, 2020 incident, Ravnsborg issued a statement saying he first believed he had hit a deer, left the scene, and returned the next day to find Bower dead in a ditch.
The records reveal that Bower’s glasses were found in Ravnsborg’s car, although the attorney general denied seeing them.
“His face was in your windshield, Jason.” Think about it, “a detective told him in one of the recordings.
South Dakota AG forced by critics to resign over new evidence of fatal car accident: “He knew what he hit and lied”
However, Ravnsborg refused to resign. In a letter to members of the Chamber, the Attorney General said the incident did not stop him as he served, including conducting “numerous ongoing investigations” into Noah.
Ravnsborg did not mention details of these probes. But in September 2021, months after Noem called for Ravnsborg’s resignation, the chief prosecutor said he was reconsidering fears that Noem had helped her daughter obtain a real estate license, Argus Leader reported.
The governor, for his part, called on the people to “ignore AG’s strange letter.”
“The Attorney General wants to do this for me to distract the members of the Chamber when the question before them is whether he should be the senior law enforcement official,” Noem wrote on Twitter.
After the vote, she added that the House had “done the right thing” for South Dakota residents and the Bower family.
Beaver’s cousin Nick Nemek told The Post he was pleased with the House’s vote. “I would hope for more profit, but it is impeachment,” he said.
The Senate must now wait 20 days to begin the Ravnsborg trial.
“I hope he is found guilty,” Nemek said.
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