Nearly a week after South Dakota’s attorney general was charged with three counts of fatally hitting a pedestrian on a road last year, the South Dakota governor has called for his resignation and published investigative interviews that detail the incident and state lawmakers have begun dismissal proceedings against him.
Jason Ravnsborg, 44, was charged with operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile device, a lane-breaking violation and negligent driving resulting from the Sept. 12 crash. Ravnsborg was not on his cell phone at the time of the impact, but was out of travel lanes, state attorneys said, when he struck 55-year-old victim Joseph Boever on U.S. Highway 14 , about a mile west of Highmore. , South Dakota. The accident did not meet the conditions for the murder, they said.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem called on Ravnsborg to step down after Tuesday’s charges.
“Now that the investigation has been closed and the charges have been filed, I think the attorney general should resign,” he said in a statement.
Noem also posted two interviews on Tuesday for more than three hours in total that police authorities conducted with Ravnsborg in the days and weeks following the fatal incident. The governor said she reviewed the material and encouraged “others to review it as well.”
During the interviews, Ravnsborg repeated that he did not know what hit the dark road, but assumed it was a deer “because what else would there be.” He said he called 911 and looked around a ditch with a cell phone flashlight, but did not discover Boever’s body until he returned the next day to examine the debris.
Investigators pressed Ravnsborg on his cell phone while driving on Highway 14 that night. They also reported the attorney general that a pair of Boever glasses ended up inside his car, going through the windshield, according to interviews published by Noem.
“His face was on your windshield, Jason. Think about it,” one of the investigators said.
A distressed Ravnsborg replied that “it hurts me a lot to hear.”
Investigators also questioned how Ravnsborg might have overlooked Boever and his flashlight, which they said was still on the next day.
“It’s really hard to get lost when you’re there,” one said.
In response, Ravnsborg said, “Obviously, I’m not as observant as I should be.”
An investigation completed a month after the crash initially determined Ravnsborg was distracted when he hit Boever in his 2011 Ford Taurus. But last week, state attorneys said that at the time of the impact, Ravnsborg he was not a distracted driver based on an analysis of two cell phones he had on him.
In a statement, the Ravnsborg spokesman said the attorney general “has no intention of resigning.”
“At no point has this issue hindered its ability to do office work. Instead, it has addressed some of the most important settlements and legislative issues the state has ever had,” the statement said. “As a lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the army reserves, AG Ravnsborg has fought for the rule of law and personal liberties and would expect to be granted the same right and courtesy.”
While the state posted videos of the interviews, state lawmakers were also initiating lawsuits against the attorney general. The resolution, filed Tuesday and filed Wednesday on the floor of the South Dakota State Capitol House, includes two indictments and charges of removing Ravnsborg from office “for his crimes or misdemeanors in office that caused the death of Joseph Boever “.
Representative Will Mortenson, who introduced the resolution, said it was “the hardest decision I’ve ever made.”
“My heart is broken by all parties involved in this case, but it’s time to do what’s right, even if it’s hard and awkward,” he said on social media.
The resolution is now pending the first hearing of the commission. A Ravnsborg spokesman told ABC News that they have not yet been able to review the full document.
Ravnsborg, who was elected in 2018, was not put on administrative leave and continued to work after the accident.
According to state records, the attorney general has a number of pre-driving offenses. According to state records, he pleaded guilty to speeding up six times between 2014 and 2018 and paid fines of between $ 19 and $ 79.
Karma Allen, Joshua Hoyos, Julia Jacobo, Jennifer Leong and Ivan Pereira of ABC News have contributed to this report.