There's still no justice for Joseph Boever or his family.
But his death at the hand of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on Saturday, September 12, 2020, continues to garner media attention.
At Daily Beast, Tom Lawrence reports in The South Dakota Attorney General Killed a Man. Everything Else Is a Mystery:
On a remote section of highway in a sparsely populated part of South Dakota, the state’s highest-ranking law enforcement official struck and killed a man while returning from a Republican Party dinner one night in late summer.
In the months since, Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg hasn’t missed a day of work—and has not faced any charge in connection with the death of Joe Boever.
Many South Dakotans are growing restless, including Boever’s family. Markers indicating a death went up at the crash site on Highway 14 in Hyde County last week, a grim reminder of the tragedy that had cousin Nick Nemec in tears.
“I’m very disappointed,” he told The Daily Beast during a video call. “Next week will mark five months since the crash. I’ve prepared myself mentally for some sort of guilty plea to a minor traffic violation on the order of ‘crossing the white line.’” . . .
The crash site is on the west edge of town. A convenience store is nearby, as are a gas station, a machinery business, and a state Department of Transportation shop. All have lights that are on all night, so the fatal crash didn’t happen in the darkness of a prairie night.
“I’ve driven the highway in the middle of the night many times since Joe's death,” Nemec told The Daily Beast. “The area between two reflector posts is lit up from your headlights bright enough to see a mouse running across the road.”
The speed limit increases to 65 mph a few feet from where Ravnsborg struck Boever, who was apparently walking back to town. He had driven his pickup off the road earlier in the evening—the cause will never be known—and struck a large round bale in the ditch.
Boever, 55, who had worked in nursing homes and a grocery store and as a farm hand, called his cousin and friend Victor Nemec, who lives nearby and came to pick him up. They left and planned to return in the morning to repair and retrieve the truck.
A few hours later, for some reason, Boever decided to walk to his pickup, carrying a light. As he returned, and just a minute or two before he would have turned off Highway 14 to walk down Iowa Avenue, Highmore’s wide main thoroughfare, he was struck and killed. . . .
Nick Nemec said he fears Boever has been forgotten in all the discussion about Ravnsborg.
“I’m afraid so. He was a mild-mannered guy and often overlooked in life,” he said last month. “Although I was pleased to have many people come forward to me who said he was kind to them at his grocery store job, and always remembered their name and details.”
Read the entire article at the Daily Beast.
Related posts:
- Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Noem supports using grand jury to speed up Ravnsborg killing probe
- States attorneys looking into killing of Joseph Boever by AG Ravnsborg not talking to Noem
- Rapid City Journal: After 4 months, still no decision on whether AG Ravnsborg will be charged for killing Joseph Boever
- AP: Prosecutors waiting on debris testing in SD Attorney General killing of Joseph Boever
- Governor Kristi Noem takes off her positive pants, given pace of Ravnsborg investigation
- Well, that's illuminating: South Dakota Highway Patrol’s accident report on Boever killing
- South Dakota News Watch: Crash experts question Ravnsborg’s car-deer explanation
- SD News Watch: State's criminal & civil traffic laws favor drivers over pedestrians in collisions
- UPDATED: Joe Boever's tragic death on Hwy 14: news digest about Ravnsborg's fatal accident
Photo: Joseph Boever, left, was killed while walking on the shoulder of a road, while carrying a light, when a distracted Jason Ravnsborg, right, was distracted while driving and his car drifted onto the shoulder where Boever walking.
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