Thread by @Ajzionts

I'm going through the videos on my own so it's going to be a while. Some things stand out from video one so far:

-Ravnsborg never said he searched the whole area that night. Prosecutors say his phone data shows this.

1/x

-He never said the sheriff searched the area. The prosecutors say the sheriff said he searched the area with a light. Maybe the AG forgot to mention this.

2/x

-After they find the body the next morning the sheriff tells the AG he will call DCI and the AG goes home to Pierre rather than wait to be interviewed on the scene. Why would the sheriff call DCI, not Highway Patrol?

3/x

OK back to listening. Will update later.

4/x

"We found a pair of broken glasses in your vehicle ... part of them was lying on the front passenger floorboard+part of them were lying in the back seat, broke in half."

AG says he has sunglasses in the car, investigator says these aren't sunglasses, they had clear frames.

5/x

"I go at the most, four over" the speed limit, Ravnsborg said.

.@DaniFergs found he has a history of speeding higher than that: argusleader.com/story/news/cri…

6/x

"Have you ever been stopped for speeding?"

"Well yes, and I see the media has already got my (inaudible)," Ravnsborg jokes about @DaniFergs's quick article about his history of speeding.

7/x

Investigator: "You're in a tough spot."

Ravnsborg: "I'm in an extremely tough spot."

8/x

"It was just kind of the one thing in there that was out of place," the investigator says of the broken glasses found in Ravnsborg's car.

9/x

Ravnsborg said he received "Hate messages (saying) basically that I should die."

10/x

Video #2

Not really relevant to this case but Ravnsborg says he gets 6-8 hours of sleep each night and usually works eight hour days. He gets paid a lot more than many people who get less sleep and work more hours.

11/x

In the second interview Ravnsborg does say the sheriff searched the area but couldn't remember if he had a flashlight: "He looked at the car itself and I know he looked at the wreckage and I believe he was looking in the ditch."

12/x

AG again repeats "I didn't look on the south side of the ditch" the night of the crash. He says he therefore looked at it the next morning and found Boever. Prosecutors said cell phone data shows he had walked by Boever the night of the crash. I'd like to see the raw data.

13/x

After finding the body "we did leave the site without calling 911 but my thought was this was the quickest way I can get the sheriff, is to go to his house, it's right there," Ravnsborg said.

14/x

I said "'Sheriff, I found a body' and his response was, 'you're shitting me.' So obviously I thought that was genuine that he was surprised that that was the case," Ravnsborg said.

15/x

AG again says the sheriff told him to go home to Pierre+he would call DCI. Why would you ever call DCI, not Highway Patrol for a crash? Especially when the person responsible for the crash oversees DCI? Why tell him to go home rather than wait to speak w/ law enforcement?

16/x

The sheriff "was probably surprised as I was minutes previously in finding the body, just kind of a shock," Ravnsborg said. "Clearly he didn't know that there was a body either."

17/x

AG repeatedly insists the crash happened when he was in the lane but LEOs+prosecutors say it happened when he was in the shoulder. He can't explain why he was in the shoulder. Prosecutors say this doesn't meet the definition of "reckless" needed for 2nd-degree manslaughter.

18/x

Ravnsborg said in his Sept. 30 interview that he hadn't spoken with the sheriff since the crash.

19/x

The AG said he wanted to reach out to Boever's family to give condolences but learned his father had recently died so thought it would been insensitive to reach out to his mother, who just lost two loved ones. He didn't mention Boever's widow.

20/x

Do you check local newspapers on the internet?

"I had until this happened" Ravnsborg said with a laugh.

He said his office subscribes to the @argusleader + @RCJournal and he reads those periodically.

21/x

"What would you think though if I told you that when they did the phone extraction, they found some internet activity on your phone around that time?" investigator asks after AG twice said he wasn't on phone.

AG again denies using it before or during the crash.

22/x

After repeatedly saying he didn't use the internet, Ravnsborg says, "I guess it's possible that I could have checked" my emails.

To use his Yahoo accounts he has to open a web browser, go to Yahoo, then click on the username which autofills.

23/x

Investigator said cell phone data shows the AG used his work phone to check his email (which takes multiple steps to sign into ... see previous tweet) and visited multiple political websites up to one or two minutes before calling 911.

24/x

The investigator notes there was likely a 1-2 minute gap between the crash and calling 911 since the AG slowed down, stopped, calmed down, looked around and began walking before calling 911. He suggests the AG therefore could have been on his phone during the crash.

25/x

"It's reasonable to say that there was a minute or two minutes from impact to when you were actually on the phone with 911," the investigator said.

26/x

Investigator: "Our concern is everything that we're seeing here is appearing that you were on your phone reading political stuff at the time."

AG: "But I just wasn't. I set it down. I know I did."

27/x

"People make mistakes. And we're thinking you made one," an investigator tells the AG.

28/x

Investigator: "It's a tough position, we know. But it's like, it sure appears to be a problem here and we want to get ahead of it just like you do. I get it, I know what kind of position you're in, it's tough."

29/x

Investigator notes that the AG has been called out before for texting and tweeting on his phone.

"Well yeah ... obviously I'm political, I get called out on lots of stuff. And it doesn't look necessarily how it looks," the AG responds.

30/x

The investigator said he's seen cases where ppl panic+have to decide what to do.

"It's like, 'I don't know what just happened to me, I just know that something's going on really serious here, and I've got to figure that out.' And I kind of think that's what you're in."

31/x

An investigator asked if the AG remembered reading an article about "Some conspiracy about Joe Biden and China."

"I glance at headlines a lot. I don't read articles when I'm driving," the AG said.

32/x

The sheriff appears to have accepted an outdated insurance card from the AG:

AG: "I looked at it+it was not the right one, it's like the year behind." I showed it to the sheriff who said "'Hell, nobody's got the right one, usually they got about five of them in the car.'"

33/x

Investigator: "They're Joe's glasses"

AG: "I wondered about that"

Investigator: "That means his face came through the windshield."

AG sighs, looks down. Says he never saw the glasses.

34/x

"We know those are his glasses, they were on his head, because thy were seen on his head (by witnesses). They ended up in your car."

35/x

"We know Jason that you weren't in the middle of the road. You were on the shoulder."

The investigator says bone was found in the rumble bar between the road + shoulder.

36/x

"His face was in your windshield Jason, think about that," the investigator says as the AG moans.

37/x

Another huge new fact. Investigator: says Boever walked w/ flashlight+it remained on after the crash, when the AG walked around.

"After the crash did you see that light in the dark? B/c it's pitch dark. If there's something glowing, it would make sense for you to see it."

38/x

The investigators went back at night + turned the light on at the same spot where it was found.

Investigator 1: "It's hard to miss, I mean it's truly had to miss when you're out there."

Investigator #2: "That flashlight was like a beacon."

39/x

"I did not see a flashlight, I didn't see him in the face. No, I did not. I did not. I did not know it was a man until the next day. No," the AG said in a whispered voiced.

40/x

Investigator: "I think you had an idea it was something other than a deer though"

AG: "I just believed it was a deer, I do. I know it sounds, but I've never hit a man before."

41/x

AG: "What else would it be ... I would not expect a man to be on the side of the road in dark like it was. I did not think that a person would be out there at that time."

42/x

Investigator: Boever has "got no blood in him, obviously he's deceased. I think he was deceased the moment he hit the car. So he is literally white. Any light that hits that is going to glow."

AG: "I did not see him the night before. I'll swear on a stack of bibles."

43/x

AG on the night of the crash: "I turn around and I'm looking into the ditch, so I don't know exactly where I turn around and saw him. I didn't see him, I did not see him."

Unclear if this is a slip here.

44/x

Investigator: "You had to walk by him" when heading to Highmore.

AG: "I might have walked by him but I didn't see him."

Investigator: "But you also had to walk by the light. That's the really confusing part," the flashlight was right on the edge of the grass+shoulder.

45/x

Investigator: "Jason, you're a good guy. You're not used to being in this pickle."

AG: "I am a good guy!"

"You're used to people that are used to being in that seat," the investigator says in reference to the AG prosecuting defendants.

46/x

"If you look at it from our perspective, things haven't been straightforward by any means. In fact, some people would call you a liar."

AG: "I'm not a liar."

"Some people, I'm not calling you a liar. I'm saying there's some mistakes made here though."

47/x

AG: "It pains me tremendously to hear that his face went through the windshield. But I didn't look over. I was trying to stay alive myself at that point and get over (to the shoulder). And I looked at the car and I didn't see any blood."

48/x

AG: "I didn't go back (the next morning) to look at him because I thought I hit a man, I went back because the debris was still there ... I said let's look for the deer, I was just curious of how did it play out."

49/x

AG makes a positive spin on him Boever's body the morning after he hit him:

"But I guess to my credit, you know I'm also like, well if I didn't find him, how long would he have laid there."

50/x

Investigator: "We're not leaving anything uncovered."

AG: "Well I get it that I get strict scrutiny because of who I am."

Investigator: "Well I think this would happen no matter what. I think your guys would be sitting in these chairs if it was someone else."

51/x

AG on how he didn't see Boever through his windshield: "I'm not looking over at him, now that I know it's a him, or what it was ... I would describe it as tunnel vision. I mean I was now trying to get over+stop. I did not look, I did not know it was a man until the next day"
52/x

AG: "I'm a military guy, you do not leave people in the battlefield, you do not leave people behind. If I had any thought that he was a man, I would have tried to" render aid, call an ambulance, tell the sheriff and ask for a DUI test.

53/x

Investigator: A videotaped reenactment using real people showed Boever walking with his light would have been "pretty apparent" which means "it's pretty apparent that you were not looking at the road when that happened."

54/x

Investigator: "This is your opportunity to help straighten things out ... I told you my concerns, and whether you think they're bogus or not, it's going to be a hard thing to get pass."

55/x

AG: 'I'm obviously not as observant as I should be."

56/x

AG: "The governor did a press conference and said I was involved in a one-car fatality and my whole family thought that I was dead."

57/x

AG expresses relief when he learns the BCI report will be sent to Highway Patrol and the prosecutor, not to Noem.

"The governor says she's going to put" a report out he said.

DPS said it would release an investigative report which never happened.

58/x

Investigator said he spoke with people at the bar/restaurant and all agreed that Ravnsborg didn't drink any alcohol.

59/x

Investigator "I think (the state) wanted to make sure that it wasn't, I mean as one of the cousin said, 'another big coverup.'"

"Well he's, I won't say anything," the AG said about Joe Boever's cousin Nick Nemec.

60/x

AG: "I did not know it was a man until the next day. I'll go to my grave saying that."

61/61

My story:

https://twitter.com/rcjournal/status/1364664165126860802