PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Senate convicted Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg of two impeachment charges stemming from a 2020 fatal accident, removing and barring him from future office.
The votes Tuesday were a stinging rebuke that showed most senators didn’t believe his account of the crash.
In a historic decision, the senate voted to impeach Ravnsborg on both articles of impeachment put forth by the House.
On the first count, Senators voted 24-9 to convict Ravnsborg. On the second vote of impeachment, Senators voted 31-2 to convict.
On the third and fourth vote, Senators voted 33-0. It disqualifies Ravnsborg from ever holding any public office in South Dakota ever again.
Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher the night of the crash that he might have struck a deer or other large animal, and has said he didn’t know he struck a man — 55-year-old Joseph Boever — until he returned to the scene the next morning.
Lee Schoenbeck, the chamber’s top-ranking Republican, said there was no question in his mind that was a lie. Ravnsvorg “ran down an innocent South Dakotan,” he said. Ravnsborg declined to address lawmakers.
He has maintained he did nothing wrong.
