PIERRE, S.D. — A prosecutor says South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will avoid a trial and take a plea deal for misdemeanor traffic charges in a crash last year in which he hit and killed a man who was walking near a rural highway.
Joseph Boever was struck and killed last September as he was walking along the side of Highway 14 in Hyde County.
Beadle County State’s Attorney Michael Moore declined to give further details of the arrangement. The announcement comes after a judge earlier this week ruled not to allow Boever’s mental-health records be submitted as evidence.
Moore said Wednesday that Ravnsborg will enter the plea Thursday – which was the scheduled start date for his trial.
The widow of the man killed, Joseph Boever, has indicated she plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Ravnsborg.
Ravnsborg told investigators he thought he struck a deer while driving home from a fundraiser late on Sept. 12. Prosecutors allege Ravnsborg was using his cell phone and was distracted in the moments leading up to the crash.
