Jason Ravnsborg, South Dakota’s attorney general since 2019, and impeached by the GOP-controlled legislature on April 12, 2022 (details here), was removed from office by the state senate on June 21, 2022 (see story here).
It’s a rare example of Republicans holding a member of their own party responsible for bad behavior.
Ravnsborg, a serial traffic offender with 27 traffic stops and a dozen tickets, mostly for speeding, on his driving record (details here), apparently was scrolling through his phone instead of watching the road when he veered onto the shoulder, and struck and killed a man walking with a flashlight on September 12, 2020. The victim, Joseph Boever, was walking back to his own disabled car.
Ravnsborg left the scene and reported hitting a deer. The “deer” smashed in Ravnsborg’s windshield and left its eyeglasses on the front seat of his Ford Taurus.
Ravnsborg told investigators he got out looked around but didn’t see anything; the investigators later said they couldn’t understand how he missed seeing Boever’s body “laying within two feet of the roadway” or walked past “a flashlight that’s on.” When his story unraveled, Ravnsborg then asserted Boever “wanted to die” and threw himself in front of his car.
South Dakota’s legal system slapped Ravnsborg on the wrist: he paid a pair of $500 fines for two minor misdemeanors. Anyone else probably would go to prison for manslaughter. His insurance company paid a settlement to Boever’s family; with his driving record, it’s weird he still had insurance.
But it created an uproar that, quite understandably, wouldn’t go away. Eventually the governor asked Ravnsborg to resign. He refused. But facing a primary challenge, he decided earlier this month he wouldn’t seek re-election. That’s now moot anyway, because the state senate also disqualified him from holding public office.
The next question is, will South Dakota revoke his driver’s license? No deer, two legs or four, will be safe while he’s behind the wheel.