DISGUSTING

South Dakota State Senate Candidate Accused of Molesting Family Member

The 44-year-old GOP candidate faces felony child abuse charges.

Joel Koskan, a local running for South Dakota state Senate in District 26, has been accused of years of child abuse in court documents. Koskan, who ran for the state Senate seat on the Republican ballot on three occasions dating back to 2018, is accused of sexually grooming and raping a family member. He was charged Thursday with one count of exposing a minor to a foreseeable harm. “The allegation against Joel Koskan is very serious, and the South Dakota Republican Party unequivocally opposes child abuse in all forms,” Dan Lederman, chair of the South Dakota GOP, told Keloland News. According to a signed probable cause statement, the victim claims that Koskan had been “raping her since she was a young child.” The prospective legislator allegedly instructed her to sit on his lap and kiss him from a young age, eventually installing cameras in her room, touching and raping her. “You promised you’d never do this,” Koskan texted her in May after discovering she had contacted authorities, according to a Division of Criminal Investigation report. “I’m begging you [Victim], you don’t want to do this.”