South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Secretary of Public Safety Craig Price say investigators from other states are helping with the state’s review of Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s hitting and killing a pedestrian Saturday night.
Noem told a news conference with Price yesterday that officers and a third-party crash investigation company were brought in from other states to reassure the public there was accountability and that the investigation was open and unbiased.
Price said he felt the process being used was “getting the right people at the right places to do the right job,” adding that he has “a ton of confidence in the work that they’re doing.”
Ravnsborg says he thought he hit a deer, disabling his car, and despite searching the scene with the local sheriff that night didn’t find the body of 55-year old Joseph Boever of Highmore until he stopped and looked again the next morning while returning a vehicle to the sheriff.
Secretary Price says any information about the investigation, including the 911 call Ravnsborg made after the accident, body camera footage from the sheriff, and toxicology reports will be released at some time in the future along with the final investigative report.
Price says witness interviews of Ravnsborg and others are being done by members of the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation while an investigator from Wyoming will handle the crash reconstruction.
The autopsy of Boever was done in Minnesota by a Minnesota pathologist, but only because one wasn’t available at the time in South Dakota.
Governor Noem says Ravnsborg has not been placed on administrative leave because the case is still classified as a traffic fatality and not a criminal case.
If the investigation turns criminal, the Hyde County State’s Attorney would decide if charges were filed.