PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — Two lead investigators with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation told a panel of nine South Dakota lawmakers they believe Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg saw Joe Boever the night Ravnsborg’s car struck and killed the 55-year-old Highmore man in September 2020.
North Dakota BCI Special Agent Joe Arenz, who filed the BCI’s initial report and more than 30 of the 65 reports included in the investigative file, said statements Ravnsborg made to him during interviews made him believe that he hit a person and not a deer.
Arnie Rummel, a supervisor and special agent with the N.D. BCI, said there were many occasions throughout interviews with Ravnsborg where the attorney general was “not being straight forward.”
“He walked by a flashlight that’s on. There’s a body that’s laying within two feet of the roadway and obviously deceased and he’s all white, there isn’t any blood being pumped in him and the fact white is reflective, I believe that he’d have to see him,” Rummel said.
On Wednesday, six Republican representatives and two Democrat representatives on the House Select Committee on Investigation heard more than two hours of testimony from Arenz and Rummel.
When asked by Rep. Jamie Smith (D-Sioux Falls) if Ravnsborg knew he didn’t hit a deer and hit a person, both agents said they believe Ravnsborg’s saw Boever.
The committee ended its meeting saying members would need to discuss what they heard from the two days of testimony at a later date and adjourned for the day.
You can follow the complete testimony as it developed in real time in the story below. KELOLAND News will have more coverage of the Ravsnborg impeachment online and on-air.
5:55 p.m.
Lawmakers are asking Arenz about interviews with other witnesses of people, who drove past the scene of the crash.
Many people told investigators Ravnsborg was not much of a drinker.
Arenz interviewed Ravnsborg’s chief of staff Tim Bormann. Bormann told Arenz that Ravnsborg wanted to return to the crash site the next morning. After arriving, Bormann and Ravnsborg went opposite directions, and Ravnsborg shouted that he had found Boever’s body.
Ravnsborg and Bormann then went to Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek’s house. The sheriff told them to return to Pierre. The sheriff stayed at the scene waiting for South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.
Arenz spoke about Boever’s glasses found in Ravnsborg’s car and evidence was displayed. He also told lawmakers if this happened in North Dakota, under that state’s laws, Ravnsborg would have been charged with a felony.
5:35 p.m.
Arenz and Rummel both said they believe Ravnsborg’s saw Boever the night of the crash.
When asked by Rep. Jamie Smith (D-Sioux Falls) if Ravnsborg knew he didn’t hit a deer and hit a person, both agents said they believe Ravnsborg’s saw Boever.
Arenz said statements Ravnsborg said to him made him believe that he hit a person.
“He walked by a flashlight that’s on. There’s a body that’s laying within two feet of the roadway and obviously deceased and he’s all white, there isn’t any blood being pumped in him and the fact white is reflective, I believe that he’d have to see him,” Rummel said.
5 p.m.
Of a group of investigators Rummel informally polled about hitting a deer, non said they never not knew they hit a deer. Rummel said it was a technique to get Ravnsborg to admit what he had seen and hit.
Both agents said the biggest inconsistencies involved Ravnsborg’s cell phone use. The agents said they did not read media coverage of the crash.
Rummel said, in his mind, Ravnsborg wasn’t telling the truth to investigators until they showed him facts.
“You were on your phone a lot more than just one phone call,” Rummel said about Ravnsborg’s cell phone use.
“We felt that what he had said meant that he had seen it,” Arenz said. Arenz said Ravnsborg would have been setup to fail a polygraph test.
4:45 p.m.
Arenz said the South Dakota Highway Patrol did a good job with their job of crash reconstruction and said there would have been hinderances for the North Dakota Highway Patrol to conduct the reconstruction.
Lawmakers are now asking Arenz and Rummel about the statement Ravnsborg released to the media two days after the crash. In that statement, Ravnsborg says he thought he hit a large animal, maybe a deer.
Arenz said he didn’t remember Ravnsborg telling him during his first interview that he thought he hit a large animal.
Ravnsborg also said in his media statement and the interview with Arenz his car was on the road when the crash happened.
Rummel said Ravnsborg was not “being straight forward” and cited Ravnsborg telling them he had not been on his cell phone, when evidence shows he was on his cell phone and that he was driving in the middle of the road when he was driving on the shoulder.
4:30 p.m.
Arenz said we got to the scene, South Dakota Highway Patrol got it under control. He said a white pickup truck west of the crash scene was Joe Boever’s. He said the eastbound lane was open to traffic, but the westbound lane was completely shut down. He said he saw a lot of debris in the shoulder and in the grass.
Arenz said they found Boever’s body in the grass and noticed his left leg was bent up over his head and his right leg had been severed.
Rummel said for the most part if a North Dakota agent would be accused of something, a South Dakota agent would come in to investigate.
Arenz said the ND BCI reports were sent to the Hyde County State’s Attorney. He also said they’ve never sprayed Blue Star, which helps find blood, in such a large area and he said that was not normal. The part they sprayed Blue Star ended up being 30 feet from where crash reconstruction point of impact was determined to be.
4:15 p.m.
Arenz said Ravnsborg reached out to SD DCI headquarters to find out what kind of information cell phone data could be found by the ND BCI investigators. Arenz also said Ravnsborg agreed to take a polygraph, but Arenz did not think it was appropriate for this case.
Other BCI agents were processing Ravnsborg’s car when Arenz first interviewed Ravnsborg and found Boever’s glasses. Ravnsborg told Arenz he wore sunglasses and after Arenz showed him a photo of glasses, Ravnsborg said he didn’t recognize them.
Rummel said the South Dakota Department of Public Safety wanted the public to be able to see the car, but advised against that.
Arenz interviewed Ravnsborg for a second time on Sept. 30 and asked him about his cell phone usage. Arenz said Ravnsborg told him he only remembered using his phone to call his dad. Arenz showed Ravnsborg about his cell phone data that showed he was using his cell phone and then Ravnsborg admitted he was using his cell phone.
Ravnsborg’s cell phone shows the 911 call happened at 10:24 and that he was looking at websites until 10:20 or 10:22. Arenz said they told Ravnsborg part of Boever’s face had to come through the windshield for Boever’s glasses to be in Ravnsborg’s car and Ravnsborg said he did not see Boever.
Rummel said he told the South Dakota Department of Public Safety to just say “distraction” on the first accident report.
4 p.m.
Arenz said former Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek told him he was contacted by dispatch. Arenz said Volek said there had been a lot of deer crashes on that road. Arenz spoke with Volek for 20 minutes and told him to submit a written statement.
Volek told Arenz he thought he saw a light in the grass, but thought it was just part of Ravnsborg’s car. The flashlight was east of Boever’s body.
Volek died in November.
Arenz said Ravnsborg gave consent for the highway patrol to test his vehicle. His first interview with Ravnsborg the Pierre Police Department. Arenz said Ravnsborg told them how he was driving back from a dinner in Redfield and that he did not drink any alcohol.
Arenz said Ravnsborg remembers driving through Highmore, seeing a speed limit sign, seeing the sign saying 48 miles to Pierre and then hit something. Arenz said Ravnsborg called dispatch and waited for law enforcement to show up.
Arenz said Ravnsborg told him he didn’t see what hit until impact and that quote stood out to him.
3:53 p.m.
When Arenz first arrived on scene, he interviewed Hyde County Sheriff Mike Volek and then helped collect evidence.
Both Arenz and Rummel said they do not specialize in crash reconstruction.
Rummel said he received a call from a South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation saying SD’s DCI couldn’t investigate the crash.
Rummel said the North Dakota agents didn’t arrive on scene until around 5 p.m. the day after the crash, which happened around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020.
3:40 p.m.
The meeting has started, speaking today will be North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents Joe Arenz and Arnie Rummel. Arenz said he received a text message notifying him ND was looking for agents to help assist with the crash investigation.
Lawmakers once again first asked Arenz and Rummel, under oath, whether Ravnsborg or anyone on his staff has reached out to him to influence him before giving testimony. Both men replied no.
On Tuesday, six Republican representatives and two Democrat representatives heard nearly five hours of testimony from six people directly involved in the initial investigation in the days after Ravnsborg’s car struck and killed Joe Boever in September 2020.
South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper John Berndt told lawmakers he responded to the crash from his station in Aberdeen. He was given a name with South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigations to contact but that person referred Berndt to a person with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Berndt said the South Dakota Highway Patrol documented where the evidence at the scene was, but North Dakota’s BCI collected all the evidence.
The South Dakota Department of Public Safety believes Ravnsborg’s car was on the shoulder of the road when the crash happened and officials said they are “very confident” in the location of where the crash happened.
An independent crash reconstruction business owner John Daily agreed with the findings from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety. Daily said if Ravnsborg’s car was in the driving lane, the crash would’ve not happened. You can watch testimony from Tuesday in the story below.
House Speaker Spencer Gosch (R-Glenham) appointed the members to the select committee, which first met on Nov. 10 and later hired Rapid City-based lawyer Sara Frankenstein as legal counsel.
The South Dakota Constitution says grounds for impeachment are “drunkenness, crimes, corrupt conduct, or malfeasance or misdemeanor in office.”
A simple majority of 36 representatives in the House would be necessary to impeach Ravnsborg, at which time the state Constitution states there’d be “Suspension of duties between impeachment and acquittal.” There’s then, at least, a 20-day delay until a Senate trial could be held. Senators could vote to convict, which would permanently remove Ravnsborg from office.
Ravnsborg’s first term as attorney general would end in January 2023, regardless of who the Republican Party nominates at a state convention and who voters choose in the November election.
Candidates for the position of attorney general are nominated at state conventions of each political party. The South Dakota Republican Party State Convention will be held June 23-25 at the Watertown Event Center.
Former attorney general Marty Jackley has stated he’ll seek the Republican attorney general nomination.
