PIERRE — 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 along a rural highway, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Beadle County State’s Attorney Michael Moore, who is one of two prosecutors on the case, told The Associated Press that “there won’t be a trial and there will be a plea entered,” but he declined to discuss further details of the arrangement. The plea will be entered Thursday, when Ravnsborg’s trial was scheduled to begin, he said.
I wrote about this case a while ago. Ravnsborg hit a man at night on a back road and thought it was a deer. The county sheriff responded and loaned him a vehicle. Neither noticed the dead man until the next day. The legislature launched an impeachment effort which fizzled out, and Governor Kristi Noem called for his resignation, but Ravnsborg stayed in office. Let’s see what he does after Thursday, but I wouldn’t bet on him quitting.
In other South Dakota news, Kristi Noem isn’t quite going full DeathSantis or Abbott. She’s ended the mask mandate in prisons, but she hasn’t supported legislation to forbid mask mandates (and it died in the legislature). For a small rural state, South Dakota has a poor COVID record – 230 deaths per 100,000 people, 10th in the nation, and 14,090 cases per 100,000, third in the nation. They are currently in another COVID flare-up caused by the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally / superspreader event, but that will probably be eclipsed by Texas and Florida. Her incompetence is bad but it isn’t as gross as RegenerRon or Abbott, especially because in raw numbers, she’ll never kill anywhere near as many kids as those two. Her record is bad, but in the kingdom of the blind, she might be the one-eyed queen.
(Bonus points to anyone who knows where this lyric is from without Googling it…)
Burnt
Sisters of Mercy. Do I get a cookie?
geg6
Disgusting. Literally getting away with murder.
hueyplong
To be fair, lots of her Sturgis cases will end up driving FL and TX numbers. So she’s “underrated” in a sense.
trollhattan
I only know the James Brown workup (right after he invented the electric light).
Pretty ironic, an AG getting away with vehicular murder (my presumption is he was drunk, so instant felony). Good job, SD.
Pete Mack
I dont know about the original, but i first came across it in William Gibson (possibly Difference Engine.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The Dead Can Dance
Ted
liz phair.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvOeyL7rsSo
trollhattan
Oopsie. Cats gonna cat.
Jessica with large bird.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Ted: Yep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvOeyL7rsSo
Ted
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
It’s wide open.
Please send my points to the e-mail address associated with this comment.
VOR
@trollhattan: iIRC, his phone’s browser was open to a right wing site indicating he may have been using it while driving.
waspuppet
I saw “Harvard Trump” on LGM; Charlie Pierce has used “Prince Variant.” All good choices.
Elizabelle
Killing a man. Was up for 3 misdemeanor charges.
I hope the late Mr. Boever’s family takes Ravnsborg to the cleaners.
Remember how he just happened to return to the scene of the hit the next day and “find” the body? Right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Betty Cracker
I don’t believe for a minute Ravnsborg thought he hit a deer. Can’t remember where I read it, but there was an in-depth piece on the incident in some publication that included clips of the cops questioning the perp and confronting him with the fact that they found the victim’s glasses in his car. He was reading wingnut propaganda on his phone, hit and killed that man and covered it up. Disgusting that he’ll get away with it.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Measles, mumps, pertussis, and chicken pox would like to thank the Governor for his efforts on their behalf.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s like Abbott is in a slapfight with every governor to see who’s the most vile. Pro move.
Comrade Colette
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Christ on a pogo stick. Ya know, instead of doubling down on this insane bullshit, Abbott could just stop. Not retract or reverse any evil, death-dealing policy, just stop where he is. That he does not do that tells me he’s a true believer.
smith
@Ken: Not to mention polio! We will have to quarantine the entire state of Texas.
ETA: If I lived there and had young kids, I’d be packing up to move right now.
Roger Moore
@Ken:
His executive order applies only to COVID-19 vaccinations, not to any other kind. It makes absolutely no sense, and I have no idea how it could possible stand up in a remotely fair court. I’m not even sure it will stand up in the Texas Supreme Court. They already shot down his attempt to prevent mask mandates. It’s not clear how he has any kind of emergency authority to step in this way.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So, what happens when some national firm with a mandate imposes it on their Texas employees?
Also, in the “least surprising news of the day” category, ‘I’m still not planning to get it’: FDA approval not swaying some vaccine holdouts.
Poptartacus
Another worthless cock
I hope the family sues the fuck out of him
A check is all they’ll get
Sad
gene108
Odds Ravnsborg wins re-election or loses in a primary?
Ken
@smith: I didn’t include polio because of the recent anti-vaxxer who said that it was no big deal, because only a very small percentage of people died from it.
Baud
@dmsilev: I assume the EO only applies to Texas governments. I’ve never heard of a governor being able to regulate private businesses in this way through executive order. OTOH, perhaps Texas is relatively authoritarian.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The GOP Death Cult doubles down again. Unfortunately, I have relatives in Texas who have to navigate around this insanity.
gene108
@dmsilev:
HR talks with employment lawyers as they try to navigate this new legal area Gov. Abbott created
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: they’re being aggressively creative, bars and restaurants that attempt mask– and I think vaccination?– requirements have been threatened with losing their liquor licenses
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They kept saying that Governor of Texas is basically a powerless position back when Mr. Can’t Count To Three held the position. So is that EO really all that binding on anyone?
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@gene108:
The former AG who tried to run for governor but lost to Noem in the primary has already declared, so I assume Ravsborg loses the primary.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Without knowing the law there, it seems like an easy win in court, but businesses certainly will be deterred by the litigation expenses.
Everything that GOP governors are doing to businesses for the plague rats is what they claim liberal Democrats do to businesses.
r€nato
IOKIYAR, Chapter Eleventy Billion
piratedan
@Betty Cracker: I’m sure that any distraught family members who accidentally run over the SD AG would get the same consideration. //////////////////////
Brachiator
@Baud:
Many private businesses are following along. There is a mindset that you just have to be tough and love liberty and then Covid will be defeated.
There has also been the disgusting outbreak of racism from the lieutenant governor, who essentially said that he agreed that there should not be vaccine mandates, but if black people would get the vaccine, then white people could go about their business and lead nice lives.
Joe Falco
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Christ, what an asshole.
cmorenc
@trollhattan:
Would some black dude have gotten away with hit-and-run with the victim’s glasses found *inside* his car have gotten away with a misdemeanor?
Urza
I don’t know specifically what we’ll do in Texas, as my company has offices in many states. I do know that we’re currently setting a deadline to cancel ALL building access for the numerous contractors that work for us, because we can’t mandate they get vaccinated like the company is mandating for employees, at least until the next contract negotiation. Its not a huge blow as the contractors have been working from home like the rest of us, but in normal times it would cut probably 10%+ of the people in our offices. And i’m quite sure the deep pocketed companies have no problem taking this to court. Especially those headquartered elsewhere that don’t have to face repercussions.
TeezySkeezy
@Roger Moore: They win elections on owning the libs and being assholes in any way they can. Struck down or not, Abbott was a performative asshole, just as he was elected to be. His voters are content with that.
StringOnAStick
Apparently a group of SD residents have been busted for underage sex trafficking related to the Sturgis motorcycle rally; I think it was 8 locals, a guy from NY and an airman from the local Air Force base. Just when you didn’t think the Sturgis superspreader event couldn’t have another worse aspect.
Fake Irishman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
it’s vaccination requirements. There is a law passed (it was tax senate bill 968) against vaccine passports is places open to the public in Texas (eg bars, hotels, retail stores etc), so that’s the leverage he has. But it doesn’t cover employees, only patrons.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Fake Irishman:
How is that constitutional?
RSA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Here’s the text:
I can’t judge what percentage of private businesses this covers. I’m guessing that Abbott can’t put strings on federal money, so maybe the actual percentage of consumer-facing businesses would be fairly low? Not that this means he’s any less an asshole. Just maybe less effective than he could hope to be.
sky
Somewhere in hell, Bill Janklow must be awfully jealous.
Fake Irishman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
state has pretty broad authority to legislate over business conditions. Something being a Dumbass policy doesn’t mean it’s unconstitutional.
Geminid
@gene108:
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: As Ms. Cracker points out, Ravnsborg was obviously lying when he said he thought he hit a deer. Plenty of people in South Dakota have hit deer at night, or know someone who has. I’ve done it twice in Virginia. There is no way someone can hit a human head-on and believe it was a deer. Ambitious right wing lawyers like Ravnsborg are a dime a dozen. His political career is over.
trollhattan
@cmorenc:
He had [checks notes] an ironclad alibi for that night (South Dakota joke).
You’re correct, of course, and the AG would have intervened personally to make sure “that poor dead fellow receives the justice he deserves.”
theturtlemoves
@StringOnAStick:
Yep. Two of them from my hometown. I don’t go back there much anymore.
Bokonon
@Brachiator: This resistance to masks and vaccine mandates has always been driven by the business community – and then sold from the top down and justified as “liberty.”