South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg killed a man with his car back in September, but he mostly flew below the national radar until earlier this week when the Washington Post revealed that, early in the investigation, authorities discovered the dead man’s glasses inside Ravnsborg’s car, complicating his already tenuous claim that he simply couldn’t have seen what he had hit that night. As the investigators pointed out in interviews released by the South Dakota Department of Public Safety, “They’re Joe’s glasses, so that means his face came through your windshield.”
Ravnsborg felt that the release of this information amounted to an improper attack on his right to a fair trial and he sought a gag order to bar the state from releasing more information gathered during the investigation that makes him look bad. The State didn’t oppose this motion and the judge signed off.
On the one hand, Ravnsborg makes a good argument. Authorities should not be trying cases in the court of public opinion and he should be allowed to address all of this evidence at trial, with all the procedural safeguards that entails. On the other hand, prosecutors didn’t charge Ravnsborg with manslaughter or even leaving the scene of the accident — he’s facing three mundane traffic misdemeanors. With the softball treatment he’s getting from the government, there’s nothing in these releases that would seem to even bear upon his upcoming trial. He’s charged with an illegal lane change for heaven’s sake. Whether or not he recklessly left the scene of a killing, which is what the glasses revelation tends to suggest, wouldn’t prejudice a lane change charge.
Because Ravnsborg doesn’t really care about the criminal repercussions based on the charges from these spineless prosecutors, he cares about keeping his career on track. Governor Kristi Noem, who took a break from the nation’s second worst COVID disaster (congratulations North Dakota!) to call on Ravnsborg to resign, had planned to release more investigative materials in an effort to either force Ravnsborg’s hand or embolden the legislative push toward impeachment and removal. This gag order won’t change the outcome of his “using a mobile electronic device” trial, but it might well keep people from seeing whatever Governor Noem saw on Monday — when she claims she first looked at the case materials — that led her to seek his resignation on Tuesday.
Ultimately, this gag order doesn’t mean much right now. The legislature will do what it wants and the jury will dutifully peg him with the biggest wrist slap they can. That’s where we sit unless some dramatic superseding indictment materializes. Hopefully there aren’t any shenanigans that keep these materials away from the plaintiffs in the inevitable wrongful death suit.
Earlier: State Attorney General Told Officers He’d Hit A Deer… In Reality, A Man Is Now Dead
State AG Killed A Man And Told Cops He’d Hit A Deer, Will Only Face Misdemeanor Charges
Dead Man’s Glasses Found INSIDE South Dakota AG’s Car
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.