South Dakota's AG charged with 3 misdemeanors in fatal crash
Source: Associated Press
South Dakota’s attorney general has been charged with three misdemeanors for striking and killing a man with his car last September
By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press
February 18, 2021, 5:04 PM
• 4 min read
The Associated Press
Victor Nemec, left, and Nick Nemec pose outside Nick Nemec's home in Holabird, S.D., Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Their cousin Joseph Boever was struck and killed by a car driven by the South Dakota Attorney General on Sept. 12. The cousins have been frustrated at the time it has taken for prosecutors to decide whether to charge Ravnsborg. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)
PIERRE, S.D. -- South Dakota’s Republican attorney general was charged Thursday with three misdemeanors for striking and killing a man with his car last summer, avoiding more serious felony charges in a case that raised questions about how the state's top law enforcement official first reported the crash.
Jason Ravnsborg could face up to 30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine on each charge: careless driving, driving out of his lane and operating a motor vehicle while on his phone.
Ravensborg said he was grateful that the legal system assumes his innocence — for now — while relatives of the man killed in the collision, 55-year-old Joseph Boever, said they were disappointed but not surprised that the attorney general was only facing misdemeanor charges.
Hyde County Deputy State's Attorney Emily Sovell said the evidence simply didn't support felony charges of vehicular homicide or manslaughter, which could have meant years of prison time. She noted Ravnsborg wasn't intoxicated, and that a manslaughter charge would have required the state to show he “consciously and unjustifiably” disregarded a substantial risk.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/south-dakotas-attorney-general-charged-fatal-crash-75978110
= new reply since forum marked as read
By Associated Press Dec 9, 2003
FLANDREAU, S.D. (AP) — Rep. Bill Janklow was convicted of manslaughter Monday for speeding through a stop sign and colliding with a motorcyclist. Janklow later announced that he will resign from Congress.
"I wish to inform you that because of present circumstances, I will be unable to perform the duties incumbent on me in representing the people of South Dakota as their U.S. representative," Janklow wrote in a letter that he said was to be sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Tuesday.
"Therefore I wish to inform you that I will resign from the House of Representatives, effective January 20, 2004."
That is the same date Janklow is scheduled to be sentenced on his manslaughter conviction.
The jury in Janklow's boyhood hometown deliberated for about five hours before returning the verdict. It rejected the congressman's claim that he was disoriented by a diabetic reaction.
Janklow appeared stunned as the verdict was read. He walked steadily out of the courtroom, got in a vehicle driven by his son and left the courthouse. He refused to respond to questions shouted by a horde of reporters.
More:
https://tdn.com/news/south-dakota-congressman-convicted-of-manslaughter-in-motorcycle-crash/article_0b8741d1-f09e-5972-9c8a-3d2334b5da77.html
- click link for image of Janklow's car -
Bill Janklow's car
Click link below for small peek at what remained of the motorcycle Rep. Janklow hit:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/od2woGBzYV138sTdZyB8XXLU-9WOfegy2Rsrv9KJS7sKXQEhKK4iePVD-aL28BVy-EU53fy3nSopdUBwCYhf5Y-UOm-hh1bENTh_DJDrxxvAOJzC2l0FyqHrFFFv-a7q63wITETz3fZErSkq57K8QJq1HnLwkCd1kfofRKu3
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- click link below for photo from the article -
https://tinyurl.com/2hl2y2po
A long line of bikers arrive at the accident site near Trent, S.D.. The motorcyclists drove through several small towns that Randy Scott once rode through. (MPR Photo/Mark Steil)
Randy Scott and Bill Janklow are forever linked in tragedy. Janklow, the South Dakota congressman, is charged with manslaughter in Scott's death. On Saturday nearly 300 bikers gathered in southwest Minnesota to honor Scott. They prayed and called for justice.
Luverne, Minn. — Some of the motorcycle riders came hundreds of miles to honor Scott. Bill Bond rode in from the Twin Cities.
"There just seems to be a real sense of fellowship, a real sense of community among bike riders. And whenever somebody can reach out and extend a hand and some sympathy and some support for a good cause like this, we have to be part of it," says Bond. The motorcycle riders gathered in the parking lot of a Luverne bar called the Howling Dog Saloon. The biker fellowship which brought them together springs from a kaleidoscope of shared emotions and experiences. Some happy, some sad, some frightening. Norm Stahl of Brandon, S.D., didn't know Randy Scott but his death still hit hard.
"You get that kind of way down gut feeling that, boy, that could have been me riding there. There's a lot of people that don't see motorcycles. They're looking for cars," says Stahl.
That sense of fate mingled with bewilderment for the bikers. They can't fathom how anyone could do what Janklow is charged with doing. If South Dakota investigators are correct, Janklow drove a two-ton Cadillac through a stop sign at 70 miles an hour. Scott's Harley Davidson motorcycle hit the car just behind the driver's door.
Dick Lauseng of Aberdeen, South Dakota called Janklow "an accident waiting to happen". "I remember years ago when Janklow was governor he wanted flashing lights on his vehicle so he could speed and stuff like that. So apparently he loves speed. It just finally caught up with him. And it's too bad it was a bike. Too bad it couldn't be a semi," says Lauseng.
Like most of the riders, Lauseng is closely following the criminal case against Janklow.
"If there's something that we don't know about and it proves that it's not totally his fault, then, I mean, let him go. But, I mean, if he's totally guilty, let him get what's coming to him. He's no better than the next guy," says Lauseng.
At a news conference in September, Janklow said "he couldn't be sorrier" about the accident. In statements to the media, Scott family members have called on Janklow to explain how the accident happen. Janklow says he won't talk about it while the case is in court.
More:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/10/05_steilm_randysride/
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Memorable words from Rep. Janklow regarding his speeding problem:
Bill Janklow cited for speeding, going 80 mph in a 65 mph zone in Clay County
A former South Dakota governor and U.S. representative who drove a vehicle that collided with and killed a motorcyclist near Flandreau in 2003 was cited in June for driving 80 mph in a 65 mph zone.
Written By: akaus@mitchellrepublic.com | Aug 6th 2011 - 12am.
A former South Dakota governor and U.S. representative who drove a vehicle that collided with and killed a motorcyclist near Flandreau in 2003 was cited in June for driving 80 mph in a 65 mph zone.
William "Bill" Janklow, 72, was cited on June 27 for speeding on a state highway, according to court documents. Janklow was driving a 2012 Mercedes on state Highway 46 in southeastern South Dakota at 11:56 a.m. when he was pulled over by a South Dakota Highway Patrol officer.
He paid a fine of $59 and court costs. The case was disposed of on July 25 in Clay County court.
. . .
Janklow was the state attorney general for four years in the 1970s before serving 16 years as governor and being elected to the state's lone House seat. During his four terms as governor, Janklow won over legions of voters in heavily conservative South Dakota with his tough-talking, maverick style.
Janklow has long been an unapologetic speeder, as witnessed during a 1999 speech to the Legislature.
"Bill Janklow speeds when he drives -- shouldn't, but he does," Janklow said then. "When he gets the ticket he pays it, but if someone told me I was going to jail for two days for speeding, my driving habits would change."
. . .
Janklow received 12 speeding tickets from 1990 to October 1994.
During his manslaughter trial, the jury was not allowed to hear about the tickets, but the prosecution was granted permission to present evidence of a close call at the same intersection where Scott died.
More:
https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/1537023-bill-janklow-cited-speeding-going-80-mph-65-mph-zone-clay-county
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Jancita Eagle Deer
After this earlier event, Bill Janklow was elected as South Dakota's governor, as mentioned in the article above. He never really got his dues for what he did to this young Native South Dakota woman:
REMEMBERING JANCITA EAGLE DEER
This morning I awoke thinking of Jancita Eagle Deer. I am sure she is watching us, from the other side, the side of the spirits. She is watching as Congress debates the Violence Against Women Act, and hoping someone remembers her.
Jancita was a Lakota woman from the Rosebud reservation. In l974, Eagle Deer testified that William Janklow, [her legal guardian as a child] had raped her on a ride home from babysitting for the Janklow family. The incident had occurred in l967. Rosebud Tribal Judge Mario Gonzalez, wrote that Ms. Jancita Eagle Deer testified under obvious emotional difficulty that she had been raped by William Janklow, and that he threatened her life with a gun. Portions of her testimony were corroborated by her high school guidance counselor , her foster parents, a rape examination, and a BIA investigator. The evidence was enough to disbar William Janklow, but he was never convicted of the crime. The Rosebud Tribal Court had no jurisdiction.
Jancita Eagle Deer was killed by an oncoming car near Aurora, Nebraska while outside of a vehicle on April 4, 1975. She had been apparently walking in the middle of the highway when she was hit. The circumstances were mysterious. She died only a few months after she had testified in Rosebud Tribal Court against William Janklow, over 200 miles away from her home.
On November 2, 1974. William Janklow was elected South Dakota State Attorney General. Janklow’s star continued to rise, and in l978, he became a two-term governor , known for turning South Dakota into the “Mississippi of the North”. Under Janklows’ political leadership, South Dakota was renowned for it’s poor treatment of Native people and seizure of Native lands and jurisdiction. After serving additional time in the House of Representatives, and in jail for vehicular homicide, William Janklow passed away in 2003. At every turn in his career, Native people rankled at his rise in power, and the lack of justice for Jancita.
More:
https://www.honorearth.org/remembering_jancita_eagle_deer
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Republican Congressman Bill Janklow
South Dakotans could use a break.
South Dakota's attorney general had been at a Republican fundraiser before hitting 55-year-old Joseph Boever on his journey home.
Friday 19 February 2021 04:40, UK
Jason Ravnsborg, pictured here in 2013, has been charged with careless driving.
Pic: AP courtesy of Jason Ravnsborg
The man who heads up South Dakota's justice efforts has been charged on misdemeanour counts after being involved in a fatal crash last summer.
Jason Ravnsborg, the attorney general for the state, is facing a month behind bars and a fine of up to $500 (£360) per count after being charged with careless driving, driving out of his lane and operating a motor vehicle while on his phone at the time of the incident.
He had been driving home from a Republican fundraiser on the night of 12 September when he killed Joseph Boever.
More:
https://news.sky.com/story/jason-ravnsborg-man-in-charge-of-justice-in-south-dakota-charged-with-misdemeanour-after-fatal-crash-12222335
If your a white RETHUG intoxicated possibly speeding driving OUT of your lane. Leaving the scene IS the BEST thing to do!! How in the fuck do they know he WAS NOT intoxicated? I guess, IF you DON"T know then give them the benefit of the doubt HUH?: TOTAL BULLSHIT HERE!!! 
