We posted last week about the ongoing story in the process of the South Dakota House's exploration of the impeachment of state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg in Bipartisan group of South Dakota House leaders call for Ravnsborg impeachment inquiry.
The South Dakota Attorney General hit and killed Joseph Boever in a moment of distracted driving a year ago September 12.
Some updates in the story
On Wednesday, Bob Mercer reported for Keloland in Ravnsborg impeachment petition to be sent to legislators this week:
What’s said to be the first impeachment proceeding against a state official in South Dakota history is starting to take shape.
The petition seeking a special session of the Legislature will go out later this week, House Speaker Spencer Gosch said Wednesday.
The potential target is state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. The car he was driving hit and killed pedestrian Joe Boever on the night of September 12, 2020.
Ravnsborg, a Republican, had his defense attorney plead no-contest for him to two traffic misdemeanors. Ravnsborg never appeared in court on the charges.
Just days before the pleas were entered, Ravnsborg was ticketed for driving 57 mph in a 35 mph zone in Pierre. He wasn’t carrying his driver license.
The petition calls for a special session on impeachment to start November 9.
The Legislature will already be at the Capitol for a special session that starts November 8 on drawing legislative-election districts for the next 10 years.
For the November 9 impeachment special session to occur, the petition needs support from at least 47 of the 70 House of Representatives members and at least 24 of the 35 Senate members.
Senator Lee Schoenbeck is his chamber’s top member and presides when Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden isn’t available. Schoenbeck has encouraged senators to agree to the impeachment special session.
Schoenbeck said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the Senate to spend much time on impeachment November 9 if there is a special session to consider impeachment. He said the Senate would gavel in, take care of some procedural issues and then recess. . . .
The South Dakota Constitution says that a majority of House members –36 currently –is necessary for an official to be impeached.
The article on impeachment includes a provision that says, “No officer shall exercise the duties of his office after he shall have been impeached and before his acquittal.”
How a suspension would affect Ravnsborg’s $121,449.51 annual salary isn’t clear.
If the House votes to impeach, the Senate must conduct a trial. The impeachment article requires the impeached official to receive notice 20 days before the start of the trial. A two-thirds majority of senators is necessary to convict.
A conviction would remove the person from office and disqualify the person from holding any office of trust or profit in state government.
Under that schedule, and with the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays, a Senate trial might not start until after the Legislature returns January 11 to start the 2022 regular session. . . .
There's more at Keloland.
The general public won't be able to read the Ravnsborg crash report for now. Earlier, Dakota News Now reported DPS denies request for Ravnsborg crash report:
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s fatal crash report won’t be released to the public, at least for now.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety has denied Dakota News Now’s public records request for the crash report, citing South Dakota Law. The denial letter says the department will reassess whether to release the file once the State Legislature determines if it will move forward with impeachment.
DPS Secretary Craig Price delivered the investigation files to Speaker Gosch earlier this month at Governor Noem’s direction. House Majority Leader Kent Peterson called for a special legislative session to determine if impeachment proceedings are warranted against Ravnsborg. The special session would take place in November. . . .
Regardless of the legislature's action on impeachment, Ravnsborg might be removed from office the old-fashioned way: an election. in this case, a primary. For South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Kevin Woster reports in Jackley runs again for familiar public-service job, where less is more:
Marty Jackley is working awfully hard these days for a chance to take a pay cut.
That’s what will happen if he wins his run for the South Dakota Attorney General’s job, a position he held in the past for 10 years.
“If I win, I will make considerably less,” Jackley says. “But I’ve been in that position before when I left private practice to be the U.S. Attorney. I took a pay cut then, too.”
Jackley’s experience as both U.S. Attorney for South Dakota and the state Attorney General make him hard to beat in terms of experience on the job. He was appointed to fill the remainder of former AG Larry Long’s last term when Long was appointed as a judge. Then Jackley was elected to two four-year terms of his own, before leaving the office because of term limits and to run for governor. . . .
It’s a crammed schedule for the 50-year-old Jackley, what with balancing private practice obligations, family obligations, and an active campaign for the attorney general’s job now held by first-term Jason Ravnsborg.
Ravnsborg’s political future is cloudy, and perhaps non-existent, following his no-contest pleas on two misdemeanor charges in connection with a fatal car-pedestrian accident late on the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, on Highway 14 just west of Highmore. Ravnsborg apparently was distracted when he allowed his Ford Taurus to drift out of the westbound lane and onto the shoulder, where 55-year-old Joe Boever was walking with a flashlight that investigators said was turned on.
Ravnsborg claimed he never saw Boever, whose face hit the windshield, sending his glasses inside the car. Ravnsborg dialed 911, telling the dispatcher who he was and that he’d hit something in the roadway. It was the dispatcher who first asked if it was a deer, and Ravnsborg said it might have been. A local sheriff came to the scene, but neither he nor Ravnsborg located Boever’s body.
The sheriff loaned his private car to Ravnsborg, who drove back to Pierre and returned to Highmore the next day, followed by his chief of staff, to return the sheriff’s vehicle. Ravnsborg stopped at the scene of the accident, discovered Boever’s body, and drove to the sheriff’s nearby home to report it.
Noem has called for Ravnsborg to resign. And the state Legislature is considering impeachment proceedings that had begun but were suspended pending the outcome of his criminal trial.
Ravnsborg hasn’t yet said that he won’t run for a second term. When asked if he thinks Ravnsborg will run, Jackley said: “I’ll leave all that to the current attorney general and to the Legislature. I’m just focusing on my race, my pathway, and trying to earn the job in 2022.
It’s a job Jackley says he loves, noting that he has missed public service since he left the AG’s office in January of 2019. . . .
Stay tuned.
Related posts:
- Bipartisan group of South Dakota House leaders call for Ravnsborg impeachment inquiry
- A Friday of headlines in the life of South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg
- Top South Dakota lawman: Joe Boever's killer Ravnsborg gets 7th speeding ticket since 2014
- Is anyone pleased with SD AG Jason Ravnsborg plea deal other than Team Ravnsborg?
- Remember Joe Boever: AP reports South Dakota AG Ravnsborg objects to cameras at his trial
- Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Army Reserve blocks Ravnsborg promotion due to Boever death
- Boever death: Ravnsborg didn't see face coming through glass, flashlight like beacon in grass
- Ravnsborg's lawyer enters not guilty plea; South Dakota Attorney General not present in court
- Joe Boever was killed, but Ravnsborg's attorney claims client suffering is the worst thing ever
- Justice for Joe Boever: Governor Noem calls for AG Ravnsborg's resignation; articles of impeachment filed in South Dakota House
- Attorney General Ravnsborg charged with 3 misdemeanors in crash that killed Joe Boever
- Twitter memorials: 5 months ago, South Dakota Attorney General Ravnsborg killed Joe Boever
- Daily Beast: Ravnsborg killed a man. Family members fear Joe Boever has been forgotten
- 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: Ravnsborg's Taurus, via Rapid City Journal. From the New York Times' transcription:"“We know that his face came through your windshield,” one investigator said. The vehicle also had an imprint from at least part of the man’s body on the hood, an investigator said, adding that “at some point he rolls off and slides into the ditch.”
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