South Dakota media sources are reporting that the consideration of the evidence collected by investigators will be considered next Tuesday and Wednesday by a select committee of nine South Dakota House members.
At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Jonathan Ellis reports in Impeachment hearings for Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg set for the week after Christmas:
A select committee of South Dakota House members will meet next week to begin deliberating whether Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg should be impeached for striking and killing a pedestrian last year.
The nine-member committee will have access to the evidence collected by investigators when it meets Dec. 28 and 29.
"This will be the first dive into it," said Rep. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls.
Ravnsborg struck and killed Joe Boever on the night of Sept. 12, 2020 near Highmore while returning from a political dinner in Redfield. The accident was initially reported as a deer strike, but Ravnsborg discovered Boever's body the next morning.
He pleaded no-contest to two misdemeanors in August related to the accident.
House Speaker Spencer Gosch appointed the select committee, which will have access to the evidence and make a recommendation as to whether the full House should consider impeaching Ravnsborg, whose term as attorney general ends in a year. . . .
Rep. Jon Hansen, one of the nine members, said he doesn't have a feel for what the committee might recommend. To him, it matters whether Ravnsborg was driving on the shoulder of Highway 14 at high speed when he struck Boever.
Reporting for SDPB Radio, Lee Strubinger writes in Impeachment committee schedules meeting next week:
A committee conducting an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is meeting.
The group is looking at Ravnsborg's conduct following a fatal car crash that left Joseph Boever dead. The attorney general pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors.
The impeachment inquiry is focusing on the conduct of Ravnsborg following the fatal crash. The group will meet Tuesday and Wednesday at the Capitol in Pierre.
Democratic State Rep. Jaime Smith, of Sioux Falls, says he expects the committee will meet more in the future.
"I think we're going to be setting up what we're going to do and begin to go through the process," Smith says. "I don't believe we're going to come to any conclusions in those two days."
Smith expects portions of the meetings will be open to the public. Other aspects will be behind closed doors.
The committee will focus on a written report, which will eventually go to the House of Representatives with a recommendation of whether to impeach.
This is the first time in state history that lawmakers have opened an impeachment inquiry into a constitutional officer.
We last looked at this continuing story in Ravnsborg impeachment: Senate President Pro Tempore releases House petitioners' names. A long list of related posts follows that article.
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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