On Tuesday, two months after the South Dakota House of Representatives voted in favor of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (R)’s dismissal for running after a man and leaving the scene because he thought he had been hit by a deer for two years. compared with the 2020 incident. The Senate voted to remove the attorney general and ban Ravnsborg – the first South Dakota official ever to be fired – from running for office. The first conviction was for causing the death of 55-year-old Joseph Boever on September 12, 2020. The Senate also found Ravnsborg guilty of misleading investigators and using his position as the state’s top law enforcement official in a bid to shape the course. of research. “This man destroyed an innocent South Dakota,” said Sen. Lee Sonbeck, a senior Republican in the Senate, during his remarks, the Associated Press reported. Schoenbeck also convicted Ravnsborg for refusing to testify in the Senate trial and for not revealing “what the hell he did” on the night of the clash. Neither Ravnsborg’s office nor his private spokesman responded immediately to the Washington Post’s messages late Tuesday. Ravnsborg and his lawyer refused to speak to reporters as they left the room after the vote, the Argus Leader said. Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec said the verdict was followed by two years of waiting. “Today I felt like a heavy weight was lifted from me,” Nemec, 63, told The Post in an interview. “When the vice-governor struck the hammer on the table and announced that the attorney general had resigned – that gave me some relief.” Boever’s widow, Jennifer Mohr Boever, did not immediately respond to a message from The Post. The South Dakota Attorney General said he thought he had hit a deer. The next day, he found the body of a dead man in a ditch. Ravnsborg said he was going home from a Republican fundraiser in Redfield, SD, around 10:30 that September night when his car hit a large figure in the dark. Ravnsborg said he thought he hit a deer and said he searched for a ditch along Highway 14 with the lens of his cell phone. “All I could see was parts of my vehicle being on and around the road,” he said in a statement at the time. The sheriff arrived and investigated the damage, but Ravnsborg said neither of them suspected that one person had been injured in the crash. Ravnsborg denied that he drank on the night of the incident. The next morning, Ravnsborg and his chief of staff returned to the scene. “While walking on the shoulder of the road, I discovered Mr Boever’s body on the grass just off the road,” Ravnsborg said. “It was obvious that Mr. Bover was dead.” Shortly after finding the man’s body, he added, drove the sheriff to his home and reported the new information. Boever’s family has expressed doubts about Ravnsborg’s story and expressed concern that it took authorities almost 24 hours to notify them of Boever’s death. Last September, Ravnsborg settled an unjust death lawsuit filed by Boever’s widow, the Argus Leader reported. The terms of the settlement remain confidential. In August, Ravnsborg pleaded not guilty to two counts of misdemeanor and avoided jail time. Earlier this year, a group of lawmakers led by State Legislature Will Mortenson (R) filed two articles accusing Ravnsborg after the South Dakota Department of Public Safety published two three-hour interviews with Ravnsborg and detectives about behavior of Ravnsborg. Many politicians, including Governor Kristi L. Noem (R), have called for his resignation. But Ravnsborg refused to resign. Ravnsborg, who has been suspended pending the Senate’s trial, told The Post in a statement earlier this year that he was looking forward to the trial, “where I think I will be vindicated.” South Dakota AG was pressured by critics to resign for new information in a car accident: “He knew what hit and he lied” Twenty-four senators voted to convict Ravnsborg on the charge of committing a crime that resulted in the death of someone, barely reaching the two-thirds majority required to do so. The charge of violating the law passed with 31 votes, while all lawmakers voted in favor of excluding Ravnsborg from taking up future positions. Later Tuesday, Noem took to social media to praise the MPs’ decision. “After almost 2 years, the dark cloud over the Attorney General’s office has been lifted. “Now is the time to move on and start rebuilding trust in the office,” he wrote on Twitter. Nemec said he and his brother shook hands after the end of the “emotional” day of justice for their cousin. “[Ravnsborg] “He will not be able to live his life as attorney general, but he will still have his life,” Nemec told The Post. “She can live another life. Joe is dead and Joe will be dead forever. That’s the cold, hard truth. “ Katie Shepherd and Julian Mark contributed to this report.
