Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom says he hopes House lawmakers impeach Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg.
House lawmakers meet Tuesday to consider whether to impeach the state’s top cop for his conduct surrounding a fatal car crash that took the life of pedestrian Joe Boever.
Over a year ago three South Dakota law enforcement organizations called on Attorney General Ravnsborg to resign from office.
At the time, those three groups said Ravnsborg’s involvement in the death of Joe Boever resulted in a lack of confidence in his ability to carry out his duties as the chief law enforcement officer in South Dakota.
Pennington County Sheriff Kevin Thom says that position remains the same.
“Personally, it’s my hope the House moves forward with the impeachment process when the full body votes on April 12,” Thom says. “Then we can have a public and transparent hearing in front of the Senate to get the matter finally resolved one way or the other.”
A House impeachment panel has been investigating the incident since January. That group recommended against impeaching Ravnsborg.
Earlier this week, South Dakota Highway Patrol troopers told lawmakers they were prevented from presenting their investigation into the crash to the impeachment panel.
Sheriff Thom, who is retiring from office, says committee members were overly critical of law enforcement.
“We’re not perfect. We make mistakes. It doesn’t mean we can’t be asked hard questions,” Thom says. “But, I thought it was disproportionate in how they approached the hearing in terms of the treatment of law enforcement.”
House lawmakers are scheduled to meet in Pierre to consider impeachment on Tuesday at 11 am central time.
