Impeachment panel grills Gov. Noem administration for handling of AG Jason Ravnsborg's crash case

South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg is the subject of the state's first-ever impeachment proceedings for his role in a fatal crash in 2020.

But it was state troopers and public safety officials who were grilled for hours Tuesday by the House Select Committee on Investigation, with much of the questioning from the nine-member panel centering around Gov. Kristi Noem's involvement in the investigation of the crash that killed 55-year-old Joe Boever and cast doubt on integrity of detectives work.

Tuesday's proceedings marked the fifth time the committee's met to weigh the case, but the first time since the proceedings started that the committee took public testimony.

"I'm trying to figure out how that leg took a U-turn," House Speaker Spencer Gosch told state law enforcers who oversaw the investigation, including Public Safety Secretary Craig Price, Highway Patrol superintendent Rick Miller and Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Kinney.

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Gosch and other committee members questioned the official account of law enforcement regarding where in the roadway the victim was struck in relation to where Boever's body and a severed limb came to rest following the crash.

Specifically, lawmakers honed in on a supplemental crash report filed in January 2021, more than two months after the initial crash reconstruction report was made public.

In the supplemental report, a second line of blood on the road was documented not originally considered in the initial report, which to committee members could suggest Boever might have been closer to the roadway than previously thought.

Kinney and other crash reconstruction experts, including an independent investigator from Wyoming, disputed the notion Boever was walking on the road given the totality of evidence, including debris located at the crash scene. Blood from Boever's body, carried by Ravnsborg's vehicle for a period of time, was also be found at the scene in two locations.

"That's how I believe those marks made their way on the side of the road like they did," Kinney said before the crash reconstructionist testified the Highway Patrol's findings were sound.

Ravnsborg was ultimately convicted of a pair of traffic violations stemming from the crash, pleading no contest in Hughes County Court in August. Those convictions, though, did not rise to the level of criminal culpability for Boever's death.

And that's why not everyone is convinced justice was served, including Noem and Price. Both have expressed disagreement with prosecutors' determination not to levy more severe charges against the attorney general.

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That, coupled with an order from Noem to DPS last year to release to the public an unprecedented amount of investigation materials related to the crash, have some impeachment committee members skeptical that politics weren't a factor in the state's handling of the case.

"Is it customary for you to second guess prosecutors?" Gosch asked Price during more than two hours of questioning in the fourth floor of the South Dakota Capitol.

Gosch was referring to Price's previously stated opinion that evidence gathered in the aftermath of the crash merited at least second degree manslaughter charges.

Questions from the committee also centered around the communication and workflow that went into determining to make public the crash report and hours worth of video footage of showing North Dakota detectives interrogating Ravnsborg, which were later ordered to be resealed by a Hyde County judge.

Price said the high profile nature of a case involving a constitutional officer demanded that level of transparency, a determination he made upon consultation with both legal counsel and Noem. And while Noem was apprised as the investigation progressed, she had no bearing on the outcome.

"We made a promise to the public that we would release the report when it was complete and at the appropriate time," Price said.

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Committee members repeatedly referred to many of the more than 65 investigation materials, including crash scene photographs, reports and interview transcripts compiled by authorities in the aftermath of the crash. None of those files have been made public despite a series of redactions being approved by the panel 24-hours earlier.

Both Noem's office and Price declined to comment for this article.

A special agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Investigation who assisted the Highway Patrol in the case is also scheduled to testify before the committee Wednesday afternoon.

Gosch told reporters following Tuesday's meeting there's no established timeline for releasing investigation materials related to the Ravnsborg case.

"We're just being thorough," he said.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Noem administration for handling of South Dakota Attorney General case