New pictures have emerged of the GOP dinner at a bar that South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg attended before he reported hitting a deer on his 110-mile drive home when he actually struck and killed a man.
Photos posted on the Spink County Republicans’ Facebook page show Ravnsborg sitting near the stage at the small Republican fundraiser at Rooster’s Bar and Grill in Redfield Saturday night, hours before he hit 55-year-old Jason Boever with his vehicle on his drive home.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem vowed Tuesday to add ‘an extra level of transparency and accountability’ to the case by having state investigators release their probe into the fatal crash.
Ravnsborg, who has eight traffic tickets since 2014, including six for speeding, has said he didn’t drink any alcohol on the fateful night.
However, the victim’s family have voiced doubts over the attorney general’s version of events and said they are worried investigators won’t get to the bottom of what happened.
Pointed questions are also being asked around how the AG could have mistaken a deer for a person, particularly given the prevalence of animal collisions in the area and Ravnsborg’s tendency to make frequent, long trips along the state’s highways for small political events.
The GOP dinner at a bar that South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (circled) attended before he reported hitting a deer on his 110-mile drive home when he actually struck and killed a man
Photos posted on the Spink County Republicans Facebook page show Ravnsborg sitting near the stage at the small Republican fundraiser at Rooster’s Bar and Grill in Redfield Saturday night, hours before he hit 55-year-old Jason Boever with his vehicle on his drive home
The attorney general was driving from the fundraiser in Redfield to his home some 110 miles away in Pierre on Saturday night when he hit something in the dark that he said he presumed to be an animal.
In a statement on Monday night Ravnsborg said he immediately called 911 and searched the area by flashlight along with Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek, who responded to the scene, but they didn’t find anything.
It wasn’t until the next morning that Boever’s body was discovered in a ditch when Ravnsborg returned to the crash site with his chief of staff.
Ravnsborg was pictured sitting at the front of the event which appeared to have been attended by only around two dozen people.
Photos show the group listening to speakers at the podium and tucking in to some food.
Witnesses at the fundraiser have vouched for the attorney general that they didn’t see him drinking alcohol and that he did not seem ‘impaired in any way shape or form’.
‘The program concluded about 9pm, constituents stuck around for some personal questions with the legislators and officials still present, and AG Ravnsborg left shortly after 9pm in the evening,’ Spink County Chairman Larry Nielson and Spink County Vice Chairwoman Jennifer Boerger said in a statement on the Facebook page.
‘In our judgement he was not impaired in any way shape or form.’
This defense of the AG comes as Boever’s devastated relatives called the fatal crash ‘fishy’ and expressed concern that authorities could bungle the investigation to protect Ravnsborg – the top law enforcement official in the state.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg (left) mowed down 55-year-old Jason Boever (right) with his car near Highmore on Saturday night and called 911 to report that he’d hit a deer
Ravnsborg was pictured sitting at the front of the event which appeared to have been attended by only around two dozen people
Photos show the group listening to speakers at the podium and tucking in to some food. Witnesses at the fundraiser have vouched for the attorney general that they didn’t see him drinking alcohol and that he did not seem ‘impaired in any way shape or form’
Boever’s cousins, Nick and Victor Nemec, have now said they are…
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