Less than two days after South Dakota’s Republican Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck 55-year-old pedestrian Joe Boever with his car, killing him, he received a text from an unnamed consultant saying, “well, at least the guy was a Democrat”.
South Dakota Department of Public Safety Secretary Craig Price revealed the text in a letter to Speaker of the state House of Representatives Spencer Gosch.
Mr Price said a review of text messages between Mr Ravnsborg and his staff and advisors showed “disparaging and offensive statements regarding other law enforcement officers, judges, a Supreme Court justice, a legislator, prosecutors, staff members, a former attorney general, and a United States senator”.
Mr Price posted the letter on Twitter on Wednesday amid efforts from GOP Governor Kristi Noem to have Mr Ravnsborg removed from the administration.
Mr Ravnsborg has barely spoken publicly about the 12 September 2020 crash.
Mr Boever was a cousin of Nick Nemec, a former Democratic state lawmaker who stood as a candidate for the Public Utilities Commission in 2012.
“You know, that doesn’t surprise me,” Mr Nemec told The Daily Beast about the text. “It just rubs me the wrong way.”
He added that Mr Boever was “just a voter” and not active politically. Mr Nemec said Mr Price’s letter had brought “turmoil” to the state capitol.
He told the outlet that there’s a fight between “far-right Republicans, regular Republicans, and Democrats. And there’s just turmoil in [the South Dakota state capital] Pierre right now”.
Ms Noem has pushed for Mr Ravnsborg to be impeached and removed from his post. In his letter, Mr Price said Mr Ravnsborg is “unfit to hold the position”.
Mr Gosch told the Argus Leader that Ms Noem was “meddling” in the investigation and suggested the legislature may not be able to continue the impeachment process.
“We’re having conversations right now about whether or not we can even proceed at this point,” he said.
Mr Price’s letter included claims that Mr Ravnsborg has often driven above the speed limit and has used his position to avoid penalties.
Mr Price said Mr Ravnsborg had been pulled over eight times and had made clear that he was the state’s top law enforcement official on five occasions. Before becoming attorney general, he received eight tickets, six of them because of speeding.
When he called 911 after striking Mr Boever, he immediately noted that he was the attorney general.
“Ally? This, well, Ally, I’m the Attorney General,” he said. “And I am, I don’t know. I hit something.”
The officer responding to the scene didn’t check if Mr Ravnsborg had been drinking, and didn’t locate what Mr Ravnsborg had struck. The officer, who didn’t speak to the media, has since passed away.
Mr Ravnsborg has said that he found Mr Boever’s body the next day while returning the officer’s personal car, which he had been loaned to get home after the crash.
But investigators have indicated that they think Mr Ravnsborg knew immediately that he had killed a man. On 30 September, they told Mr Ravnsborg that Mr Boever’s glasses were found inside the attorney general’s car.
“That means his face came through your windshield,” a North Dakota Bureau of Investigation agent told Mr Ravnsborg.
“His face is in your windshield,” the agent said. “Think about it.”
Ms Noem released videos of Mr Ravnsborg speaking to investigators but later had a judge order them to be taken off a state site.
Mr Price said some lawmakers “appear more interested in discovering why information was provided to the public as opposed to the facts of the investigation”.
Mr Ravnsborg took a plea deal for two misdemeanours and paid a total of $1,000 in fines and court costs.
“The language and sentiment expressed in this text message to Attorney General Ravnsborg is disrespectful and wrong,” South Dakota Democratic Party Chair Randy Seiler told The Daily Beast. “To bring partisan politics into a tragedy like this is unacceptable. Our leaders should serve with honesty and integrity, and Secretary Price’s letter makes clear that Jason Ravnsborg is unfit to serve the people of South Dakota as Attorney General.”
“Yesterday, Attorney General Ravnsborg was granted an unprecedented closed-door meeting with legislative appropriators,” Ms Noem tweeted on Thursday. “Now, they are suddenly giving him an extra $1.5 million without any public hearing. REMINDER: the House is still in the middle of impeachment proceedings.”
“No other constitutional officer... no other state agency or department... nobody else got a similar closed-door discussion in the final days of session,” Ms Noem added. “These meetings are supposed to be public and transparent for a reason.”
“Let me get this straight... they don’t have time to conclude their impeachment process, but they have time for secret closed-door meetings to give Ravnsborg $1.5 million with no accountability?” she wrote.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Ravnsborg for comment.
