SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg faces a historic impeachment trial this week for his actions surrounding a 2020 car crash in which he struck and killed a pedestrian.
As the state Senate prepares to decide whether the first-term Republican attorney general should be convicted and removed from office, here’s what to know ahead of the two-day trial that begins Tuesday:
WHY WAS RAVNSBORG IMPEACHED?
He struck and killed 55-year-old Joseph Boever as Boever was walking near the shoulder of a rural highway in September 2020.
Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher he hit “something” in the middle of the road and later said he believed he had hit a large animal. The next day, he returned to the crash site and said it was only then that he discovered Boever’s body.
After a lengthy criminal investigation, Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to a pair of traffic misdemeanors, including making an illegal lane change. Ravnsborg attempted to move past the crash, but Gov. Kristi Noem, a fellow Republican, pushed for his ouster.
The House in April impeached Ravnsborg on two counts: committing crimes that caused someone’s death and malfeasance in office.
WHAT ARE THE IMPEACHMENT CHARGES?
The first charge centers on the crash and Ravnsborg’s driving record leading up to it.
“The attorney general has broken the law, and as a result of that one of our citizens has died,” Republican Rep. Will Mortenson told the House as he argued for impeachment. Mortenson said the crash was part of a “disturbing pattern” of driving by Ravnsborg, pointing to a score of traffic tickets and warnings he had accumulated.
The malfeasance charge covers a range of Ravnsborg’s actions.
House lawmakers say Ravnsborg misled law enforcement, from telling a 911 dispatcher the collision happened “in the middle of the road” to later interviews in which criminal investigators said the attorney general was not being straightforward and telling the truth.
The House lawmakers also argue Ravnsborg abused the powers of his office by using official letterhead for a statement on the incident and later questioning a Division of Criminal Investigation agent about what the crash investigators could find on his cell phone.
Ravnsborg has consistently denied wrongdoing and cast the Senate trial as a chance to be “vindicated.”
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL?
It takes two-thirds of the Republican-controlled Senate’s 35 members to convict…
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