Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
- South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will not face jail time after killing a pedestrian last year.
- Ravnsborg admitted reading an article about Hunter Biden's investments in China as he was driving.
- The attorney general is refusing to resign and may face impeachment.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will not be going to prison after he struck and killed a pedestrian, the Associated Press reported.
Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor traffic charges on Thursday and will have to pay nearly $5,000 in fines. He did not appear in court but was represented by his lawyer, Tim Rensch. But the embattled attorney general still faces a lawsuit from the widow of the victim, Joseph Boever, and a potential impeachment by the state legislature.
Ravnsborg killed Boever on September 12 of last year while driving home from a political fundraiser. Ravnsborg claimed in his initial 911 call that he'd hit a deer, even though detectives say that Boever's body collided with Ravnsborg's windshield so hard that his eyeglasses landed in the attorney general's back seat.
Ravnsborg drove away from the scene that night, only to return and find Boever's body the next day.
In February, a video of investigators questioning Ravnsborg about the crash on September 30 of last year was released in February, revealing that immediately prior to the crash, the attorney general had been reading an article about a documentary filled with conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden's investments in China.
-Tim Johnson (@timothywjohnson) February 26, 2021
"I remember looking at it, but that's when I set my phone down," Ravnsborg is seen telling investigators in the video.
Jennifer Boever, the victim's widow, told the AP that Ravnsborg's "actions are incomprehensible and … cannot be forgiven" while his sister accused the attorney general of "cowardly behavior" for not attending the hearing.
Despite pressure from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to resign, Ravnsborg has refused to do so, and he still maintains support in some GOP circles.
"When people look at his record of achievements, they will find he's done a good job," Republican state Rep. Steve Haugaard told the Associated Press.