PIERRE, SD (AP) – The Republican Attorney General of South Dakota on Thursday was charged with three felonies for beating and murdering a man with his car last summer, avoiding more serious charges in a case that raised questions about how the The state’s senior law enforcement officer first reported the crash.
Jason Ravnsborg could face up to 30 days in prison and a fine of $ 500 for each charge: driving carelessly, leaving his lane, and driving a motor vehicle while on the phone.
Ravensborg said he was grateful that the legal system assumes his innocence – for now – while relatives of the man who died in the collision, 55-year-old Joseph Boever, said they were disappointed, but not surprised that the Attorney General was only charged. of a crime. .
Hyde’s deputy state attorney Emily Sovell said the evidence simply did not support allegations of vehicle murder or manslaughter, which could have meant years in prison. She noted that Ravnsborg was not intoxicated and that a manslaughter charge would have required the state to demonstrate that he “knowingly and wrongly” was ignoring a significant risk.
“At best, his behavior was negligent, which is insufficient to file criminal charges in South Dakota,” said Michael Moore, Beadle County state attorney who helped handle the case.
Ravnsborg, who was elected to his first term in 2018, initially told authorities he thought he had hit a deer or other large animal when he drove to Pierre from a Republican fundraiser late on Sept. 12. He said he searched the unlit area. with a cell phone flashlight and didn’t realize until the next day that he’d killed a man when he returned to the scene of the accident on US 14 near Highmore.
Crash investigators said in November that Ravnsborg was distracted when he turned onto the verge of the highway where Boever walked. But it took prosecutors months longer to press charges in the crash and launched an investigation that took into account GPS data from cell phones, video footage from Ravnsborg’s route, and DNA evidence.
Ravnsborg said he hadn’t been drinking before the crash and handed over his electronic devices to investigators. A toxicology report from a blood sample taken about 15 hours after the crash showed no alcohol in Ravnsborg’s system. Investigators said on Thursday they found no evidence that he was drinking alcohol in the hours before the crash.
Boever’s family had questioned Ravnsborg’s account and expressed their frustration five months passed while they waited for a decision on a charge.
Nick Nemec, Boever’s cousin, said on Thursday that he was “disappointed, but not surprised” by the allegations. He called the South Dakota homicide law “ weak ” and expected his family to take civil action against Ravnsborg.
“I was concerned that the charge would be something on the order of crossing the white line,” said Nemec. “And that’s exactly what the charge was.”
Ravnsborg said in a statement, “I appreciate more than ever that the presumption of innocence continues to work in our legal system.”
He added that he could not imagine the “pain and loss” of Boever’s family.
Moore, the state attorney, said the charges of the crime were the “ right decision, ” but he didn’t feel good about it.
“Obviously, when someone dies, we want to know what happened. But we are limited by the investigation and the facts, ”he said. ‘And we can’t force someone to tell us. I mean, you have nowhere else to go. “
Despite accusations that Ravnsborg was accused of being on his cellphone, he wasn’t actually on his device at the time of the crash, authorities said. They said phone records showed he had used his phone about a minute earlier.
Prosecutors determined from cell phone data that Ravnsborg walked past Boever’s body while he walked the crash scene with his mobile flashlight. But Sovell noted that it was a “very dark night” with no lights on the road, and there was no evidence that Ravnsborg or the sheriff who responded to the crash saw Boever’s body.
A Wyoming crash reconstruction expert and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted the South Dakota Highway Patrol in the investigation. Such accidents would usually be investigated by the South Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is accountable to the attorney general’s office. The other agencies undertook the investigation to avoid conflicts of interest.
This story has been corrected to remove an erroneous statement that Ravnsborg could face a year in prison; The prosecutor said each of the three offenses is punishable by up to 30 days in prison and a fine.