The Senate also voted to exclude him from “holding any position of trust or profit under the state” in the future. In a day trial on Tuesday – the first referral trial in the state’s history – prosecutors tried to characterize Ravnsborg as a detached driver who covered up his knowledge of striker Joe Bover on September 12, 2020. Ravnsborg called 911 after the incident that night and said he “had no idea” what broke in front of his windshield, saying it could be a deer. A local sheriff soon arrived at the scene and neither of the two men reported seeing a human body. Ravnsborg returned the next morning with an assistant and found human remains at the scene and then led the sheriff to report the body. “Wherever his attention was, he was not on the road,” prosecutor Mark Vargo said during the trial on Tuesday. Prosecutors said Tuesday that Ravensburg would continue to tell many lies, including how often he used his cell phone in the car that night, how fast he was driving, where he was when he hit Bover (he initially said he was still in the lane, but later found to be on his shoulder), and whether he saw the body on the night of the incident. “I do not think I really need to quote chapter and verse from a bunch of South Dakota people about integrity and honesty – and why we do not lie in public,” Vargo said in his last words. Ravnsborg was present at the hearing but did not testify. Prosecutors brought in five witnesses, while the defense team did not produce any witnesses. CNN contacted Ravnsborg for comment. In April, the GOP-controlled state House voted to oust Ravensburg on two counts: committing crimes that resulted in the death of an individual and abuse of power. Ravnsborg did not invoke any competition last year for two crash-related offenses. He was fined $ 500 for each of the offenses – one case of using a motor vehicle while using a mobile electronic device and one lane driving measurement. A third category of misdemeanor was rejected. Ravnsborg was not imprisoned. Ravnsborg also agreed with the victim’s family. His attorney general, Michael Butler, tried to prove throughout the trial that Ravnsborg was not on his phone in the last seconds before the conflict and that he was cooperating with law enforcement at every turn. He urged the Senate to acquit Ravnsborg, saying the referral justified a “serious offense”, not a traffic offense. “The Senate should not be limited to a traffic warden,” he said, adding that the reasons for removal should be considered “catastrophic, illegal and bad.” “What you are doing here today is writing history in one form or another,” Butler said at the end of his remarks. He acknowledged that Ravnsborg had lost confidence in law enforcement and Republican Gov. Christie Noem, and that he was not running for re-election. “He does not seek re-election, but seeks to justify himself.”
