The South Dakota Attorney General is bringing charges against another former state employee who has been arrested on forgery charges.
It’s the fourth case the Republican has brought against former state employees this year.
Rene Strong was indicted Tuesday on 13 class five felony counts. The Springfield woman is accused of falsifying food service inspection reports while working for the Department of Public Safety and performing contract work for the Health Department
During a press conference in Sioux Falls on Tuesday, Attorney General Marty Jackley said a Hughes County Grand Jury issued the 26-count felony indictments.
He said this case is another reason why he’s encouraging lawmakers to focus on whistle blower protections.
“This case began as a whistle blower case, back on October 8th, 2024. It’s progressed very quickly. Both the department of health and Department of Public Safety have correlated. And I think again this calls out or cries out for what I, as Attorney General, am asking the legislature to do. And that is to provide mandatory reporting of all felonies to the Attorney General," said Jackley.
Jackley said Strong was a state employee for a just over a year.
Jackley said Strong is accused of not conducting public health inspections but signing off as she did.
“We picked out 13 instances when inspections had not occurred. That there is an alleged forgery on the business owner, indicating from the defendant that the business owner had signed off on an inspection that had not occurred. And those inspection records were filed and relied upon by state agencies,” said Jackley.
Late last month, Gov. Kristi Noem announced an executive order requiring state employees to take annual ethics and financial stewardship training.
