Nearly a week after the attorney general in South Dakota was charged with three offenses for fatally hitting a pedestrian on a highway last year, the governor of South Dakota asked him to resign and release investigative interviews that incident outlined, and lawmakers in the state began the indictment. proceedings against him.
Jason Ravnsborg, 44, is charged with driving a motor vehicle while using a mobile device, lane breaking and reckless driving as a result of the September 12 accident. Ravnsborg was not on his cell phone at the time of the attack but was off the beaten track, state attorneys said when he hit 55-year-old victim Joseph Boever on U.S. Highway 14, about a mile west of Highmore. , South Dakota. The accident did not meet the conditions for manslaughter, they said.
The government of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, called on Ravnsborg to resign after the charges on Tuesday.
“Now that the investigation has been closed and complaints have been lodged, I believe the Attorney General should resign,” she said in a statement.
Noem also announced on Tuesday two interviews spanning three hours that law enforcement officers conducted with Ravnsborg in the days and weeks following the fatal incident. The governor said she had reviewed the material and “encouraged others to review it as well.”
Ravnsborg reiterated during the interviews that he did not know what he was hitting on the dark highway, but assumed it was a deer “because what else would there be.” He said he called 911 and looked into a ditch with a cellphone flash, but did not discover Boever’s body until he returned the next day to examine the debris.
Investigators pressed Ravnsborg on his cellphone while driving along Highway 14 that evening. According to the interviews that Noem issued, they also informed the attorney general that a broken pair of glasses from Boever ended up in his car.
“His face was in your windshield, Jason. Think about it, ‘said one of the investigators.
A grieving Ravnsborg replied that it “hurts me very much to hear.”
The investigating officers also questioned how Ravnsborg could overlook Boever and his flashlight, which they said was still the next day.
“It’s really hard to miss when you’re out there,” one said.
In response, Ravnsborg said: “Of course I’m not as observant as I should be.”
An investigation completed a month after the crash initially determined that Ravnsborg was distracted when he hit Boever with his 2011 Ford Taurus. Last week, state attorneys said Ravnsborg was not a derivative driver at the time of the impact, based on an analysis of two cell phones he had.
In a statement, Ravnsborg’s spokesman said the attorney general “does not intend to resign.”
“At no stage did this issue impede his ability to perform the work of the office. Instead, he dealt with some of the largest settlements and legislative matters that the state has yet to go through,” the statement read. “As a lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the army reserves, AG Ravnsborg fought for the rule of law and personal freedoms and would hope he gets the same right and courtesy.”
While the state released the videos of the interviews, lawmakers in the state also launched an indictment against the attorney general. The resolution, which was tabled Tuesday and filed on the House floor of the South Dakota capital on Wednesday, contains two articles of indictment and charges that Ravnsborg should be removed from office “because of his crimes or transgressions in office that resulted in the death of Joseph Boever. “
Rep. Will Mortenson, who tabled the resolution, said it was “the hardest decision I have ever made”.
“My heart breaks for all parties involved in this matter, but it has become time to do what is right, even if it is difficult and uncomfortable,” he said on social media.
The resolution is now pending its first committee hearing. Ravnsborg’s spokesman told ABC News that they could not yet review the full document.
Ravnsborg, who was elected in 2018, was not placed under administrative leave and continued to work after the accident.
The attorney general has a series of past offenses according to state records. He pleaded guilty to driving six times between 2014 and 2018 and paid fines between $ 19 and $ 79, according to state records.
ABC News’s Karma Allen, Joshua Hoyos, Julia Jacobo, Jennifer Leong and Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.