We're hoping he's convicted and fired. The National Weather Service in Aberdeen tells us the heat may break tonight, so perhaps the witnesses won't suffer much.
Before anyone else attending the impeachment trial of killer Jason Ravnsborg complains about the heat, I should remind the conservative Republicans who hold Ravnsborg’s fate, the public trust, and the reputation of their party in their hands that the South Dakota Constitution does not mention air conditioning, and as fans of Alito will avidly cheer, if the Constitution doesn’t mention it, it does not matter!
Ravnsborg’s attorney Michael Butler is too cool to sweat, but the impeachment prosecutors include in their exhibits one document that will raise the rhetorical heat a couple degrees. The 2020 Student Handbook for the Law Enforcement Basic Certification Course bears Ravnsborg’s name and title on its opening letterhead and on the list of Law Enforcement Officers Standards and Training Commission members. . . .
Senators, you need to have more than the gumption to put up with a lack of air conditioning. Senators, have the courage to hold the Attorney General accountable to the same ethical standards to which we would hold a rookie deputy. Have the courage to repair the public trust. Have the courage to convict Jason Ravnsborg.
Amen.
At the South Dakota Standard, Tom Johnson writes in Senate impeachment trial will be final chapter — we hope — in drawn-out drama of Attorney General Ravnsborg:
The final act in this long, grim drama is about to unfold.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg faces an impeachment trial in the state Senate. It is scheduled to last for two days, running Tuesday and Wednesday.
Will the 35 senators vote to convict Ravnsborg, remove him as attorney general and ban him from ever holding office again? A two-thirds majority is required. The Senate is under Republican control, with 32 GOP senators, led by state Sen. Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown, an old hand at Republican politics.
Are they willing to end Ravnsborg’s political career? I spoke with a state senator just before the South Dakota House of Representatives impeached Ravnsborg on April 12, and he was hopeful the case would end in the House. It didn’t, and now the curtain will rise on the final scene, complete with fancy tickets for seats. . . .
If the Senate votes to convict Ravnsborg and remove him from office, Noem would appoint a replacement. Ravnsborg was elected to a four-year term in 2018.
He had set his sights on a political career earlier, running for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2014 but finishing a distant fifth as former Gov. Mike Rounds was party’s choice.
Ravnsborg spent the next four years touring the state and seeking support to be the GOP’s nominee for attorney general. He won after a spirited contest at the 2018 Republican State Convention, and then defeated the vastly more experienced and qualified Democratic candidate, former U.S. Attorney Randy Seiler.
Ravnsborg . . . wasn’t a major figure in state politics during his first two years in office.
He rarely hit the headlines until he ran over and killed a pedestrian on U.S. Highway 14 on Sept. 12, 2020. The death of Joe Boever, a 55-year Highmore resident with a troubled personal history, would roil South Dakota politics for almost two years.
Boever was, for whatever reason, walking along the north shoulder of U.S. Highway 14 just before 10:30 p.m. that Saturday night. Highmore is a quiet place, but the events of that night will resonate for years.
Boever was killed almost instantly, his right leg severed when struck by the AG’s car. His body rode atop it, with his face busting through the windshield and his broken glasses landing inside the vehicle.
Ravnsborg has repeatedly said he didn’t see the man’s face inches from his own, and had no idea what he had struck. As we have learned, Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek, who lived nearby, responded to the 911 call and made almost no effort to determine what had occurred. . . .
Ravnsborg was eventually charged with three misdemeanors, making an illegal lane change, using a phone while driving and careless driving charge. None were directly tied to striking and killing Boever.
Almost a year after the fatal crash, Ravnsborg struck a plea deal, pleading no contest to the illegal lane change and using his cell phone while driving. The careless driving charge was dismissed.
He didn’t even make an appearance in court. He was fined $1,000, ordered to pay $3,742 in court costs and to perform “a significant public service event” in each of the next five years.
That’s it. People receive harsher sentences for much less crimes when no one dies, although driving fatalities are often dealt with surprisingly mildly.
That is the justice Jason Ravnsborg received, much to the displeasure of South Dakotans and people across the nation. Ravnsborg, meanwhile, has complained how it was all handled. . . .
The Mitchell Republic provides a handy timeline of how Ravnsborg and the state got there in Senate to meet Tuesday to decide Ravnsborg's fate as Attorney General, 21 months after fatal crash. Same article, different head at the Rapid City Journal: The long road to the state's first impeachment.
Stephen Groves of the Associate Press outlines What to know ahead of South Dakota AG impeachment trial.
But if Ravnsborg keeps his job after Tuesday, there will still be drama in nearby Watertown this week. We thought of the old cliche note where there's heat, there's fire (at least a bonfire of GOP vanities) when we read Jonathan Ellis and Joe Sneve's Attorney general, election integrity driving interest in South Dakota Republican convention:
South Dakota Republicans gather in Watertown this week for what could be a contentious party convention that decides the future path of the GOP.
This year’s convention, in which the party will select nominees for constitutional offices in the November general election, comes on the heels of the impeachment trial of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg. That impeachment process has exposed fault lines in the party, most prominently in the relationship between Gov. Kristi Noem and some House Republicans.
The deeper fault line runs among conservatives whose ideological differences are measured in matters of degree. Some of those fights got resolved during this month’s primary election. But beneath the surface of the legislative and statewide primary races, dozens of smaller races took place for precinct committeeman and women positions. They, along with other party officials, will be the delegates at the convention who nominate constitutional candidates and vote on which will represent South Dakota Republicans on the November ballot. . . .
The contest for attorney general will turn a page on a historic chapter in the office's history. Embroiled in scandal for nearly two years, Ravnsborg's fall from grace in the South Dakota political world could hit bottom this week when the Senate considers removing him from office for his role in a 2020 crash that killed pedestrian Joe Boever.
But the writing has been on the wall for months that the 46-year-old attorney general's days in office were numbered regardless of whether or not the Legislature wants him gone. That's because he was already nearing the end of his first term when polling showed the average South Dakota voter didn't support him.
And that's added intrigue to the convention, as former Attorney General Marty Jackley more than a year ago announced he wanted his old job back. And last month, Ravnsborg's Division of Criminal Investigation director, David Natvig, also threw his hat into the GOP nomination race.
Both men tout their backgrounds in law enforcement and legal communities as well as their commitment to defending the laws of South Dakota and fighting crime.
Some delegates see Jackley as an establishment, status quo candidate, while Natvig's connections to Ravnsborg are a liability for others who'll help the party decide its nominee this week. . . .
We earlier published South Dakota News Watch's SD Attorney general intrigue: Future roles uncertain for Jackley, Natvig — and Ravnsborg.
We'll tune in to the action in Pierre tomorrow morning, until we're driven out to garden and mow.
Storms are on the way, real and metaphorical.
Photo: Attorney General Ravnsborg's Taurus, with which he swerved off a highway and killed Joseph Boever, who was carrying a flashlight as he walked on the shoulder of the road.
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