WITH GREAT POWER…

South Dakota AG Pulled Rank to Weasel Out of Traffic Tickets: Report

… comes great irresponsibility, as documented road menace Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg might say.

The Republican state attorney general of South Dakota, who as of this week seems likely to avoid impeachment over a fatal hit-and-run in 2020, has a pattern of leveraging his office to wriggle out of traffic tickets. According to a report obtained by CBS affiliate KELOLAND, Ravnsborg’s driving history is fraught with traffic stops. But although he was pulled over by law enforcement 15 times in the two years before the 2020 accident, the 45-year-old attorney general was ticketed exactly twice. In one case, he was caught driving 50 miles an hour in a 35-mile speed zone by a Gettysburg police officer, according to the report. Ravnsborg promptly told the officer he was the attorney general and that he “was in a hurry to go [to a] meeting.” The officer reportedly let him off with a warning. Similar exchanges happened twice more in the months leading up to the September 2020 crash that killed pedestrian Joe Boever. Though Ravnsborg was slapped with three misdemeanor charges to do with using a phone while driving, using traffic lanes unsafely, and driving carelessly, he sidestepped more serious felony charges. The special committee’s recommendation will go to the full, Republican-controlled House for a final vote of approval on April 12.