PIERRE, S.D. — One of the troopers presenting evidence and analysis of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s fatal crash into Joe Boever in the fall of 2020 said the House Select Committee on Investigations looking into impeachment had an earlier chance to hear the presentation–but refused.
“Essentially, we did prepare the presentation,” South Dakota Highway Patrol Sgt Kevin Kinney told legislators, journalists, and the public at a Zoom meeting at the Capitol Lake Visitors Center Wednesday afternoon. “Our understanding is that it was made known to them that we had a presentation that we could walk through the case, and my understanding is they (the impeachment committee) said no.
Sgt Kinney also said he was 95% certain that Boever was on the shoulder of the road when Ravnsborg hit him.
When asked by a legislator if Ravnsborg engaged in distracted driving, Trooper John Berndt answered, “How else can you explain it?”
Berndt and Kinney are accident reconstructionists for the patrol.
Berndt said that the evidence shows that by the length of time it took Ravnsborg to stop, that his car ran over a rumble strip on the shoulder and had four tires on the shoulder, and that the accident threw Boever into his windshield, and the Boever was on his hood for several hundred feet led him to that conclusion.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety opened the meeting to the public and the media but only allowed state legislators to ask questions of the two troopers.
Moderator Tony Mangan with SDDPS did put a stop to one question posed by a legislator: “Is there a pattern of the Attorney General using his office to avoid traffic violations?”
Mangan said that would have to be a different investigation and not why the SDDPS and its troopers were there for Wednesday.
Another legislator asked why Boever didn’t step out of the way of Ravnsborg’s car. That night, September 12, 2020, Boever was walking on the ditch side of the shoulder going east, facing westbound traffic.
Trooper Berndt said the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent on the case said it was difficult to see the lights of oncoming traffic because of the lights in Highmore.
The state House meets next Tuesday to vote whether or not to impeach Ravnsborg. The special committee has recommended not impeaching Ravnsborg. However, other legislators can move to impeach the attorney general. If the House does vote to impeach, the proceedings would eventually go to the Senate, where state senators would ultimately decide if Ravnsborg is stripped of his office.
