A special inquiry committee in the South Dakota House of Representatives emerged from a closed-door meeting Monday to propose that Ravnsborg not be referred. It would be the first referral trial in the 133-year history of the state. According to a 22-page report released early Monday afternoon, there were insufficient reasons for Ravnsborg’s dismissal. A special investigative committee voted 6-2 against the referral recommendation, with six Republicans voting against and two Democrats voting in favor. Committee chairman Spencer Gosch did not vote. “The Selection Committee finds with a clear and convincing model that Advocate General Ravnsborg did not commit a misdemeanor, as he did not commit any crime or other illegal act involving moral arbitrariness due to the authority or power of his office,” the report said. The House, which is controlled by Republicans 62-8, will convene on April 12 to decide whether to accept the report. A group of Republican lawmakers sent a letter to Ravnsborg earlier in the day asking him for guidance from the state Supreme Court to challenge Gov. Kristi Noem about using federal funds for COVID. Noem, in a response issued by her re-election committee, said lawmakers were more interested in “protecting one of their own” rather than holding Ravnsborg responsible for the deadly crash. She was even sharper on her own Twitter account. “Jason Ravnsborg killed a man, lied to investigators about the events of that night and tried to cover it up,” Noem said. “Joseph Bover’s family deserves justice.” Ravnsborg, a freshman Republican hoping to run for re-election this year, ran and killed Joe Bover on September 12, 2020, on a lone section of U.S. Highway 14 in central South Dakota. Ravnsborg claimed he had no idea what hit his car, and since the local sheriff could not find Boever’s body, Ravnsborg borrowed a car and returned to Pierre, the state capital, that night. Ravnsborg’s personal car.

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The next morning, Ravnsborg was returning to Sheriff Mike Volek’s car when he said it had stopped at the crash site. He found Boever’s body and drove to the nearby sheriff’s house to report it. This triggered a storm in the South Dakota political scene that has not yet calmed down. Noem, like the Ravnsborg Republican in her first term, has repeatedly asked him to resign or remove him from the legislature. Hearings for the referral began in February 2021, but after Noem released a video of Ravnsborg stumbling over interviews with a pair of North Dakota researchers, the effort stopped. Lawmakers said they would allow the criminal proceedings to be completed before considering referral. Ravensborg was charged with three counts of misconduct, but closed a deal to avoid two of them, with the number of reckless drivers being dismissed. He paid a couple of $ 500 fines plus $ 3,000 in court costs. Retired District Court Judge John Brown, who heard the case after all the other judges resigned, also ordered Ravnsborg to conduct a public service for distracted driving training. Ravnsborg never appeared in court during the legal proceedings. He settled a civil suit with Boever’s widow for an unknown amount. Ravnsborg issued a statement on August 26, 2021, saying that “Joe Boever is deeply saddened by the loss of his life in this accident. “I feel sorry for the whole family for the loss of their loved one.” He said he had “fully cooperated” with the investigation, while refraining from speaking to reporters. Ravnsborg said he wished he had met Boever “under different circumstances”. He then began discussing the work his office had done and talked about other issues, including marijuana regulation approved by South Dakota voters in 2020, the management of a $ 26 billion opioid settlement, and methamphetamine treatment. , opioids and fentanyl. “I do not know all that the Lord has in store for me, but I trust in Him. As I continue to serve as your Attorney General, I will continue to fight for you, as I have done since taking office. May God bless each of you and may God continue to bless South Dakota. “ Noem then renewed her appeal to Ravnsborg to resign or to the Legislature to accuse him. “With today’s appeal, Jason Ravnsborg’s legal proceedings are over. “Like many South Dakota residents, I am not only frustrated with the way prosecutors are handling this process, but also outraged by the outcome of today’s hearing and sentencing,” he said. “Ravnsborg has not accepted responsibility for Joseph Boever’s death and has not even appeared in court today to face charges or the Boever family.” North Dakota investigators who were flown to their sister state to investigate the fatal accident told Ravnsborg they doubted its history. He was reminded that Boever’s face went through the windshield of the car and his glasses were found inside. They repeated it in a statement before the special committee on January 19. “He was walking next to a flashlight that was on,” said Arnie Roumel, a Special Agent at the North Dakota Office of Forensics. “There is a body that is two feet away from the road and it is obviously dead and it is all white, there is no blood pumping inside it and the fact that white is reflective, I think it should see it.” On Monday, the South Dakota legislature suspended for the year after failing to overturn three vetoes by Noem. The Parliamentary Select Committee of Inquiry started operating at 3:07 p.m. CDT and immediately went to the meeting of the executive. Boever’s cousin Nick Nemec was waiting for an announcement. He was with Jenny Boever, widow of the 55-year-old Highmore man who was run by Ravnsborg, and her mother, Deanne Smith. Nick Nemec (in red) and Victor Nemec, Joe Boever’s cousins, showing where his body was discovered.

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On Monday night, Nemec said he was waiting for this decision from the committee. A former Democratic lawmaker, he has represented the family and has closely followed the entire legal and political process. “I’m disappointed,” Nemec told The Daily Beast. “I hoped some of the Republicans on the committee would vote in favor of the referral. “But it was a straightforward partisan vote.” He said that he had little reason to believe that the Plenary Session of the Parliament would ignore the recommendation and proceed with the referral. House Democrats will ask for their report on the minority, which is the removal of the attorney general, as he adopted, Democratic House Speaker Jamie Smith, a member of the committee who is also the party’s candidate for governor, told Nemec. But Nemec said he did not expect that. “No, I’m not at all optimistic,” he said. There were other upheavals in the case. Following the close of the 2022 session on Monday, House Speaker Chris Carr, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, asked Attorney General Ravnsborg to seek a court ruling on how Noem spent COVID’s 19 federal incentives. . The governor vetoed a bill ordering it to be approved by a special parliamentary committee, and the legislature failed to bypass it on Monday. But the discussion did not end there. “We therefore request that a lawsuit be filed to seek a declaratory decision or other appropriate action, including a possible prohibition document, to ensure that all government spending is carried out with legal authority,” a letter to the attorney general said. Signed by 11 lawmakers — including President Gosch. Lawmakers were angry earlier this month when electronic billboards appeared in Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, urging Ravnsborg to be ousted and calling on lawmakers to ask them “what were they trying to hide?” A team called the Dakota Institute for Legislative Solutions, led by a man named Rob Burgess, took the credit for the signs. Noem said she did not participate, but lawmakers said they wondered if she was playing a role in this part of politics through outdoor advertising. Goss told Dakota News Now, a television news company, that the governor seemed obsessed with the attorney general. “She does not like this man. “I do not know if it is because she has constant research on her behavior, I do not know what it is,” he said. “But she does not like this man. accuses him unjustly of many things in the last year and a half “. Noem is being investigated for using state planes to travel to political events outside the state, as she raised her national profile, and for participating in pressure from a longtime government official to give her daughter a real estate appraiser license. Noem said she did nothing immoral or inappropriate. “They have been in contact with interested citizens and lawmakers,” Ravnsborg said in September on the issue of the permit, which included a meeting at the governor’s office attended by the civil servant, Noem’s top executives – and her daughter. . “I am actively addressing their concerns and will follow the steps set out in the codified legislation in relation to these questions.” Civil servant Sherry Bren later retired. He received a $ 200,000 settlement from the state after filing a lawsuit for age discrimination. Noem’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, surrendered her license in late 2021. The fatal accident almost faded into the background at times. Volek never spoke publicly about the case before he died during a trip to North Carolina in November. His family said his health had deteriorated and he died of a heart attack. Noem has clashed with President Goss, who chairs the South Dakota House Research Committee. She has backed former Attorney General Marty Jackley, who is also backing her for re-election. The two had a bitter dispute over the appointment of the Republican governor in 2018, but now Noem is backing him in his quest for his old job. In South Dakota, the candidates for attorney general, …