(CN) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who struck and killed a pedestrian on a rural highway in 2020, should not be impeached, the state's House Select Committee on Investigations said Monday.
The recommendation from the Republican-controlled committee comes after four months of intermittent hearings at the State Capitol in Pierre, 18 months after the incident in which Ravnsborg struck and killed Joseph Boever along U.S. 14 near Highmore, South Dakota, and seven months after Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors in connection with the collision.
The committee voted unanimously to make its report, described by Committee Chair and House Speaker Spencer Gosch as "extensive and long," public.
Ravnsborg has remained in office despite calls for his resignation, including from Governor Kristi Noem. Both Ravnsborg and Noem are Republicans.
The Monday evening vote on the report was 6–2, with the two Democrats on the committee, Ryan Cwach and Jamie Smith, emphatically voting no.
"After a careful and comprehensive investigation, and consideration of the facts and applicable law, the majority of the select committee hereby concludes Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg did not commit an impeachable offense in his conduct surrounding the death of Joe Boever," Gosch said before taking the vote. "The select committee recommends that the articles of impeachment do not issue."
Noem was displeased with the committee's decision, and fired off a series of angry tweets Monday night.
In one, Noem said: "The question before this committee was, should the Attorney General should continue to be the top law enforcement officer in the state of South Dakota. It is clear that he should not be. My hope is that the House of Representatives as a whole will do the right thing."
Ravnsborg was driving home late in the evening of Sept. 12, 2020, after a fundraiser when he struck and killed Boever, 55.
The attorney general has said he was not aware he had hit a person the night of the crash. In his initial statement to authorities, Ravnsborg reportedly said he thought he had stuck a deer or large animal but was reportedly unclear why he swerved onto the highway shoulder.
Ravnsborg claimed that he stepped out of his car after the collision to search the area with a cellphone flashlight. He said it wasn’t until he returned to the scene the next day that he realized he had struck a person.
In previous hearings, representatives on the committee asked detailed questions of the investigators, who said the attorney general was distracted and driving on the shoulder when he struck Boever.
“He’s driving so far on the shoulder he’s almost going to the ditch, when he strikes Mr. Boever,” Trooper John Berndt of the South Dakota Highway Patrol told the committee in January. “To say you never saw the person and the face came through your windshield? I’m sorry, that’s a distraction.”
No alcohol was found in Ravnsborg’s system when his blood alcohol level was tested 15 hours after the collision.
The attorney general was charged with careless driving, using a mobile electronic device while driving, and failing to stay in his lane. The careless driving charge was dropped as Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to the other counts. He faced no felony charges.
Recent publicity for Ravnsborg has not been kind. On March 9, state Public Safety Secretary Craig Price issued a letter that said Ravnsborg was unfit to hold office, the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls reported.
In that same letter, Price said that less than two days after striking Boever, an unnamed political consultant sent the attorney general this text message: “Well, at least the guy was a Democrat."
Gosch cried foul. He told the Argus Leader that the letter’s release amounted to the Noem administration interfering in the committee’s work.
“We’re having conversations right now about whether or not we can even proceed at this point,” the speaker said earlier this month.
There has been widespread support for showing Ravnsborg the door. A poll in October found that 66% of voters surveyed believed the Legislature should remove him from office. But he is well liked among local Republicans in the state.
Ravnsborg is up for reelection in 2022. The state GOP convention will take place June 23–25 in Watertown. In December, a University of South Dakota political science professor suggested legislators might drag the matter out to let the party or voters decide.
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