Killer Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s August 22 traffic stop could lead to misdemeanor charges beyond his $177.50 speeding ticket:
Hughes County State’s Attorney Jessica LaMie is reviewing the citation and body camera footage for other possible charges.
One potential charge could address Ravnsborg driving without his license, she said. Another option is a careless driving charge due to his speed, which was allegedly 22 miles-per-hour over the limit [Arielle Zionts, “State’s Attorney Reviewing Driving, License Charges After Ravnsborg Speeding Citation,” SDPB, 2021.09.02].
Hughes County Deputy Dalton Sack ticketed Ravnsborg for driving 57 miles per hour in the 35-mph zone on Garfield Avenue, on the east side of Pierre. Evidently South Dakota’s top law enforcement official forgot to put his driver’s license in his pocket when he went out that Sunday evening to get a light bulb and dispose of his recycling. Driving without a license is a Class 2 misdemeanor, subject to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.
State’s Attorney LaMie mentions careless driving. SDCL 32-24-8 defines careless driving as driving “carelessly and without due caution, at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger any person or property, not amounting to reckless driving….” To rise to reckless, SDCL 32-24-1 says driving must be done “carelessly and heedlessly in disregard of the rights or safety of others, or without due caution and circumspection and at a speed or in a manner so as to endanger or be likely to endanger any person or property…” Careless driving is another Class 2 misdemeanor. If anyone wants to argue for reckless driving, the penalty rises to Class 1 misdemeanor, which brings up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
So Jason’s little light bulb dash on August 22 could bring him penalties equal to what he got for the two charges to which he pled guilty for his inattentive driving on September 12, 2020, when he killed a man.
Related Viewing: Here’s the full nine-minute video of the stop, which consists mostly of Deputy Sack seated in his car quietly writing up the ticket. After his somewhat flustered and embarrassed responses at the beginning, Ravnsborg remains mostly silent when the Deputy returns to obtain Ravnsborg’s signatures on the ticket and power of attorney and recites his standard businesslike directions and admonition to “Slow down drive safe have a good night ok?”
AG Ravnsborg must have dirt on every Republican in South Dakota, especially the big dog Denny Sanford.
Pope Frank, the head of the Roman church even released a diktat stating that sect’s revulsion of capital punishment putting Attorney General, Joe Boever’s killer, former altar boy and suspected incel Jason Ravnsborg’s soul at risk to eternal damnation. But $20 says Jason would just love to dispatch a handcuffed death row inmate with a shotgun blast to the abdomen just like someone did for Rich Benda.
I am not at all sure I can appreciate kurtz’s entire post, but I shall say this, as a simple person. I had the misfortune (but NOT as misfortunate as the skunk) of running over and killing a skunk at the intersection of 44th and Wadsworth in the Denver-Metro area in 1996 on my way to a twelve-hour shift in Arvada.
I apparently feel worse about killing the poor skunk than Roundboy does about killing Mr. Boever.
Hmmm. An unexpected whirlwind of vitriol from Kurt.
How did this man have a valid drivers license after killing someone with his car the year before?
And did the State Bar do anything? Manslaughter is a crime of moral turpitude.