‘IN MY OPINION...’

South Dakota Public Safety Head: AG Should Have Faced Manslaughter Charges

Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to traffic violations after striking a man last year, killing him.

South Dakota’s top public safety official told state legislators that the state’s attorney general should have faced manslaughter charges for killing a man with his car last year. Department of Public Safety Secretary Craig Price wrote to the state House of Representatives, “In my opinion as a 24-year law enforcement officer, and in the opinion of the highly trained highway patrol officers involved in this investigation, Mr. Ravnsborg should have been charged with 2nd Degree Manslaughter.” Price sent the letter alongside materials from his office’s investigation of the crash, in which Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg hit a man with his car last year, killing him. Ravnsborg pleaded no contest only to two counts of misdemeanor traffic violations. He will skirt jail time and has refused to resign.