South Dakota lawmakers put off attorney general's impeachment
Washington — South Dakota's House of Representatives voted Monday to put on hold impeachment proceedings against state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who is facing criminal charges for fatally striking a man with his car in September.
The House approved a resolution 57 to 11 that says state lawmakers "may evaluate whether articles of impeachment against Jason Ravnsborg, attorney general of the state of South Dakota, are necessary and proceed accordingly" after a decision in his ongoing criminal case.
A bipartisan group of South Dakota lawmakers filed a resolution in the House to impeach Ravnsborg after he bucked calls to resign, and impeachment proceedings began last month.
According to videos released by Governor Kristi Noem, the state's top law enforcement official told police in interviews he never saw the victim, 55-year-old Joseph Boever, and instead believed he hit a deer with his Ford Taurus. But police told Ravnsborg that Boever's broken glasses were found in his car, and bone scrapings were discovered on the shoulder of the highway where he was hit.
"His face was in your windshield, Jason, think about that," investigators told Ravnsborg in one interview.
The attorney general said he didn't know he hit a man until the next day, when he returned to the scene of the crash and saw Boever's body in the grass on the side of the road.
Ravnsborg, a Republican, has been charged with three misdemeanors in Boever's death. He faces up to 30 days in jail and a maximum fine of $500 on each charge.