Former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, who killed a man in 2020 while driving distracted, is now fighting to hold onto his Iowa law license just months after his South Dakota license was suspended, according to filings with the Iowa Supreme Court.
Ravnsborg was impeached, convicted and removed from office in 2022 for his actions following the Sept. 12, 2020, crash, which resulted in the death of South Dakota pedestrian Joe Boever.
Ravnsborg originally reported he thought he had hit a deer that night, but it wasn’t until the next day that Boever’s body was found.
The fallout was public and messy, including Ravnsborg refusing to resign at the urging of Gov. Kristi Noem. He was subsequently convicted in 2022 on two counts of impeachment to remove him from office. And this past September, the South Dakota Supreme Court suspended his law license for six months.
Arguments made by the State Bar Association claimed Ravnsborg’s conduct following the September 2020 crash was unbecoming an attorney.
“Ravnsborg’s conduct throughout the criminal investigation and impeachment process eroded public confidence in the legal profession,” the South Dakota Supreme Court’s ruling said. “The board also found that Ravnsborg repeatedly used his political title when interacting with law enforcement to receive a personal benefit; failed to accept responsibility for his conduct in killing Boever; and was more concerned with the accident’s impact on his professional career than its impact on the victim, the victim’s family, and the public.”
On To Iowa
Ravnsborg’s suspension was automatically sent to the Iowa Supreme Court, because he is also licensed to practice law in that state. Iowa can implement similar punishment or hold its own hearing.
Ravnsborg wrote the court in late 2024 asking for a hearing or to issue a private reprimand instead.
He said suffering the same punishment twice would be “too severe.”
“I strongly disagree with the South Dakota ‘facts’ and conclusions and believe that you should not impose identical discipline in Iowa that South Dakota did as that would be too severe,” Ravnsborg wrote.
The court opted to hold a hearing, which is set for Wednesday.
It is unclear whether Ravnsborg will be able to attend. The filing from Ravnsborg said he had been on active duty with the Army since his impeachment. He also said he was scheduled to go to Korea at least five times over the next year.
What Happened
Ravnsborg had been on his way home from a local Lincoln Dinner when he hit Boever.
Boever had been walking alongside the road at night with a flashlight. It was later determined Ravnsborg had all four wheels on the shoulder of the road at the time he struck Boever.
According to 911 transcripts, Ravnsborg told dispatchers he had hit “something” in the middle of the road. A deputy and Ravnsborg searched for what he had hit but found nothing that night.
Ravnsborg went home using the local sheriff’s car.
It was not until Ravnsborg had returned to the crash site the following morning that Boever’s body was discovered. A toxicology report taken 12 hours after the crash showed no signs of drugs or alcohol in Ravnsborg’s system.
The local sheriff requested the state’s help in investigating the crash and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation turned the case over to North Dakota investigators to avoid conflicts of interest.
Distracted
Ravnsborg maintained he had not known he hit a person, despite Boever’s glasses being discovered in the car.
He also said he had been driving in the lane and had not been using his cellphone.
It would later be determined Ravnsborg had been distracted by his cellphone before the crash, according to information released by the state, but that both of his phones had been locked at the time of the crash.
But official accounts of the investigation allege Ravnsborg was not always forthright with information.
In its decision to suspend Ravnsborg’s law license, the South Dakota Supreme Court wrote, “When responding to the investigators’ questions, Ravnsborg occasionally did not appear forthright, and only willing to acknowledge certain conduct after confronted with evidence by the investigators.”
They would add, “Ravnsborg frequently identified himself as ‘the Attorney General,’ including when encountering law enforcement for minor traffic violations such as speeding, and when making a 911 call from the highway shortly after killing Joe Boever.”
Ravensborg would later plead no contest to operating a motor vehicle while using a mobile electronic device and improper lane driving. Both are misdemeanors. The state dismissed a third charge of careless driving. He would also settle a legal case brought by Boever’s family.
As a result of the crimes leading to Boever’s death and Ravnsborg’s conduct during the investigation, he was impeached April 12, 2022, and later convicted, removing him from office. He became the first South Dakota statewide official to be impeached and removed in the state’s history.
