He said it was a deer, then police found glasses. Now South Dakota’s AG avoids trial over fatal crash

State’s top law enforcement officer refused to resign despite calls from police groups and governor

A plea deal means that South Dakota’s Attorney General will avoid a trial for a controversial crash in which he hit and killed a man walking along a country road.

Jason Ravnsborg, the state’s top law enforcement officer, initially told investigators that he thought he had hit a deer or another large animal as he drove home from a Republican fundraiser last September.

During questioning, investigators confronted Mr Ravnsborg with the fact that victim Jason Boever’s glasses had been found inside his vehicle when it was later searched.

“His face was in your windshield, Jason. Think about that,” they told him at one point of his interview, video of which was released by Governor Kristi Noem.

Mr Ravnsborg told police that after the crash he searched the area with a flashlight, and said he did not realise he had killed a man until he returned the next day to the scene of the accident near Highmore, South Dakota.

Crash investigators announced in November that Mr Ravnsborg had been distracted when he veered onto the hard shoulder of the road near where Mr Boever, 55, had been walking.

During his police interview, Mr Ravnsborg was not sure how he had swerved onto the hard shoulder, but detectives in the case told him they had found bone scrapings on the road’s rumble strips.

“I never saw him. I never saw him,” Ravnsborg told police.

During questioning, detectives told the Attorney General they believed he had been reading something on his phone at the time of the crash, which he also denied.

Mr Boever’s widow has indicated that she will file a wrongful death lawsuit against Mr Ravnsborg.

“He knew there was a dead man in that ditch,” Nick Nemec, Mr Boever’s cousin, told The Washington Post after the interview was released.

“He knew what he hit and he lied.”

The governor and three law enforcement groups have all called for the Attorney General, who was elected to office in 2018, to reign.

But he has refused to quit and the Republican-controlled state legislature has not impeached him.

The plea deal was confirmed by Beadle County State’s Attorney Michael Moore to The Associated Press, but he decliend to give any further details on it.

The plea will be entered on Thursday, when Mr Ravnsborg’s trial was due to begin.

He had faced three misdemeanor charges of operating a vehicle while using a mobile or electronic device, a lane driving violation and careless driving, that each carried prison sentences of up to 30 days and a fine of up to $500.