South Dakota Senate convicts Ravnsborg, stripping title of Attorney General, barring him from holding office – Mitchell Republic

PIERRE — Jason Ravnsborg is no more time South Dakota’s Attorney Standard.

The conclusion came Tuesday evening after the South Dakota Senate voted 24-9 (with two excused) to convict Ravnsborg on content of impeachment for crimes fully commited in business office.

A second vote on a independent write-up, alleging malfeasance dedicated in business office, passed the Senate by a much bigger the vast majority with a 31-2 vote.

Further than currently being stripped of his position, lawmakers produced their feelings known, voting unanimously twice to disqualify Ravnsborg from ever holding an business office of rely on in the point out again.

What was initially meant to be a two-day demo, Ravnsborg appeared before the Senate represented by defense lawyers Mike Butler and Ross Garber.

Irrespective of hours of testimony from witnesses identified as to the stand by the prosecution, Ravnsborg’s counsel elected not to call any witnesses to the stand, forfeiting the extensive vast majority of the 4 hrs granted for examination of witnesses.

The elimination of Ravnsborg will open the doorway for Gov. Kristi Noem to appoint a alternative right up until the future attorney standard is sworn in in January 2023.

In excess of the system of a trial lasting 10 several hours and 7 minutes, the prosecution relied heavily on testimony from 5 witnesses, including North Dakota Bureau of Felony Investigation (NDBCI) and South Dakota Division of Felony Investigation (DCI) agents as nicely as South Dakota Highway Patrol (SDHP) troopers.

Prosecutor Mark Vargo 1st identified as Kevin Kinney, an SDHP sergeant and a crash reconstructionist, to the stand to kick off testimony with the information of the crash.

When he 1st responded to the scene of the crash on Sept. 14, 2020, Kinney was in demand of troopers who were being collecting proof from the web page that he’d sooner or later flip into a map of the crash.

“There was 1 piece of particles discovered in the lane of vacation, which was identified to the south of the white fog line, two inches into the lane of journey. Each and every other piece of evidence was totally on the shoulder or in the ditch,” Kinney reported. “I have an particularly superior degree of self-assurance that what we have is quite accurate. … I am 100% self-confident [Ravnsborg] was driving down shoulder of the highway.”

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Regardless of Kinney’s certainty, in recorded interviews with NDBCI agents Arnie Rummel and Joe Arenz, which were played for Senators, Ravnsborg adamantly denied at any time driving on the shoulder.

Following making use of his opening argument to tout Ravnsborg’s cooperation with law enforcement, Butler drilled Arenz on why he available Ravnsborg the possibility to choose a polygraph check, only to never ever truly perform the examination.

Arenz mentioned conversations involving him and other polygraphers led him to feel the effects may show Ravnsborg was being misleading even if he was telling the real truth. He agreed with the prosecution that it would be disingenuous to post Ravnsborg to a test that may return with invalid final results, as an alternative opting to aim on Ravnsborg’s statements that contrasted with evidence.

“We retrieved facts [from Ravnsborg’s phone] that confirmed world-wide-web utilization, electronic mail, mobile phone logs and text logs although traveling. Jason Ravnsborg instructed us his only cellular phone utilization was to call his father,” Arenz explained. “But the pinged knowledge showed electronic mail utilization and looking through web-sites. We requested him about that and he very first taken care of that he only produced calls, but he later acknowledged he could have checked e-mails. He was only keen to acknowledge something as soon as he understood we had the data.”

Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

In a closing argument, Vargo pointed out that the testimony proved Ravnsborg had habitually lied to a wide range of officers about the activities foremost up to and subsequent the crash.

“The idea that somehow he’s prevented by ND from taking the polygraph is about as straightforward as the relaxation of the story he’s informed you. He lies about the place is in the lane. Mr. Butler has quite a few instances acknowledged that he appreciates he wasn’t in the lane of site visitors,” Vargo claimed, noting he also claimed he was in the lane of targeted traffic in a letter to the Residence of Reps. “He did not just lie to 911, he failed to just lie to regulation enforcement, he lied to the Property the night in advance of they met for impeachment.”

Just before he retired, DCI agent Brent Gromer had an uncomfortable private discussion with Ravnsborg, he testified.

Just hours following Ravnsborg submitted his telephone to NDBCI agents for a forensic research of the device’s activity logs, Gromer claimed Ravnsborg, irrespective of never ever talking to Gromer prior to, approached him in Pierre to talk to for data concerning the lookup.

“[Ravnsborg wanted to ask about evidence that could be recovered. There was no pretense,” Gromer said. “He asked about the info that could be recovered to a cell phone, and referred to his own phone.”

According to Gromer, Ravnsborg questioned if a certain app would make it look like he was using his phone when he wasn’t and inquired about if it could access his flashlight usage.

Gromer testified that the conversation made him uncomfortable, as he had never before been approached by a suspect in a then-criminal investigation to answer questions regarding the collection of evidence.

Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

“Have you ever given a criminal defendant advice?” prosecutor Alexis Tracy asked?

“Not outside a criminal trial,” Gromer responded.

“Would you have had that conversation if it wasn’t the attorney general?” Tracy followed up.

“No, I would not,” Gromer said firmly.

After all testimony was through, and before both sides gave their closing arguments, senators were given the opportunity to ask questions to either the prosecution or defense, as well as witnesses — leading the defense to mince their words carefully.

Sen. Herman Otten, R-Lennox, asked Butler whether Ravnsborg attended Lincoln Day Dinners — a political event in which Ravnsborg was returning home from at the time of the crash — as the attorney general or as a regular citizen.

“I’m not sure how to answer that question. Obviously he’s the attorney general,” Butler said. “He was not performing the official functions of the attorney general by attending a political event, and I don’t think there’s any support in the constitution.”

Seeing an opportunity to further their case, the prosecution jumped in, too.

Adam Thury / Mitchell Republic

“We would refer senators to Ravnsborg’s own statements that he is ‘always on duty.’ The malfeasance that comes afterwards, he certainly is acting as the attorney general,” Tracy said.

When further probed if Ravnsborg’s use of his work phone while returning from the Lincoln Day Dinner constituted him acting as the attorney general, Butler denied the claim, calling his phone use an “innocent act.”

Following the final votes that removed Ravnsborg from office and barred him from holding statewide office in the future, the Senate moved to memorialize Tuesday’s events in the legislative history books, passing a resolution to certify and ratify the proceedings.

Ravnsborg and his legal team avoided a swathe of reporters seeking comment.