PIERRE, SD — Former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg on Wednesday urged the state Supreme Court to reject an effort to suspend his law license, arguing that he took responsibility and acted professionally after a fatal accident involving a pedestrian that caused his political downfall.
Ravnsborg was impeached and ousted as attorney general less than two years after the 2020 crash that killed 55-year-old Joe Boever, who was walking along a rural stretch of highway when he was struck. Now a South Dakota State Bar disciplinary board is asking for a 26-month suspension of Ravnsborg’s legal license, although this would be retroactive to June 2022, when he left office. That means the suspension would end in August.
It is unclear when the court will decide whether the suspension should be imposed.
Ravnsborg spoke on his own behalf during the court hearing. He told the judges that, contrary to the disciplinary board’s allegations, he was remorseful.
“Once again, I apologize to the Boever family that this happened,” Ravnsborg told the court. “It’s been 1,051 days, and I count them every day in my calendar, and I say a prayer every day for him and myself and for all the members of the family and all the people who are affected by this. And I am very sorry for that.”
Thomas Frieberg, a lawyer for the disciplinary board, said its members focused on Ravnsborg’s actions after the accident.
“The board had the strong feeling that he was once again not so candid. That he was evasive,” Frieberg said.
Ravnsborg, a first-term Republican, was driving home from a political fundraiser on the night of September 12, 2020, when his car hit “something,” according to a transcript of his 911 call. He told the dispatcher it might be a deer or some other animal.
Family members later said Boever had crashed his truck and was walking toward it, near the road, when he was struck.
Investigators identified what they believed were errors in Ravnsborg’s statements, such as when he said he turned around at the scene of the accident and “saw” him before quickly correcting himself and saying, “I didn’t see him.” And they claimed that Boever’s face came through Ravnsborg’s windshield because his glasses were found in the car.
Ravnsborg has said that neither he nor the sheriff knew Boever’s body was lying just feet from the sidewalk on the shoulder of the highway. Investigators determined that Ravnsborg walked right past Boever’s body and his lit flashlight as he looked around the night of the crash.
Ravnsborg resolved the criminal case in 2021 by pleading no contest to a pair of traffic violations, including illegal lane changes and using a phone while driving, and was fined by a judge. Also in 2021, Ravnsborg agreed to a secret settlement with Boever’s widow.
During the 2022 impeachment hearing, prosecutors told senators that Ravnsborg made sure agents knew he was attorney general, saying he used his title “to set the tone and gain influence” in the aftermath of the crash. Ravnsborg’s attorney, Michael Butler, told the state Supreme Court that Ravnsborg responded only when an officer asked if he was attorney general.