i love morris: Is Ravnsborg case another "hot coffee?"

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Is Ravnsborg case another "hot coffee?"

Jason Ravnsborg

Shall we give a second thought or two to the Jason Ravnsborg case out of South Dakota? Was there a rush to judgment? Such things can happen but then we can be reminded of the lawyers for O.J. Simpson. Part of the smokescreen they created - they were so good at it - was the "rush to judgment" defense.

"We don't know all the facts" can be a haven for those wishing to cloud a prima facie judgment. It's hard to argue with the line. We neither wish to "rush to judgment" or to share analysis minus all the facts.

Where a defendant is truly on the defensive or backed into a corner, "knowing all the facts" can end up being an endless refrain because when, truly, do we know all the facts?

So as I consider the Ravnsborg case again on this late July day, 2021, new statements are being made seeking to at least thicken any smoke on behalf of the still-embattled South Dakota attorney general. This is a guy who can summon all the Howitzers the legal system can provide. His own savvy was his best initial defense because, as one analyst commented, he answered the interrogators with words carefully tailored so his a-- wouldn't end up in prison.

I have watched the interrogation. Two dudes from North Dakota asked the questions in a room designed for this sort of thing.

If anyone including myself might have reached premature judgment re. the South Dakota AG, we had good company, in that Governor Kristi Noem called for the guy's resignation some time ago. I call her "Governor Tight-Fittin' Jeans." Remember the Conway Twitty/Loretta Lynn song? Men are known to fawn over her regarding her "looks." I don't really think I am mesmerized that way. Isn't it rather sexist to even talk in these terms anymore? I'm not sure men universally agree on what's "good looking" anymore with women.
Kristi Noem? I think she's a bit skin and bones, frankly. I might prefer a little more meat on the bones. There, that's a sexist comment itself, but I'm really just trying to demonstrate a point about such analysis - the absurdity of such a broad-brush judgment as if my own perception would be important to anyone else.

So Noem wanted Ravnsborg out quite some time ago.

You maybe know that Ravnsborg sees himself as quite the military sort of guy. Maybe it's that discipline that maintains his steely resolve vs. the onslaught of negative attention. He was beat up royally in the popular perception for a long time. I'm not sure that's over, even though some new statements at least suggest a more gray perspective on the matter. But do they? It's far from certain.

Lesson from another case

Lately I have gotten to thinking about the famous "hot coffee" case involving the Golden Arches, remember? The initial news reports even from NBC gave a slam-dunk impression that someone launched a frivolous lawsuit based on spilled hot coffee from a McDonald's drive-through. (The late Steve Cannon of WCCO Radio called these restaurants "Mac and Don's Supper Club.")

Oh, and tort reform advocates from the right side of the political spectrum gathered like flocking birds, pounding the table about how despicable such frivolous suits were.

Remember the lawyer Jerry Spence who had a run in the national media as the big-time lawyer with the folksy air? The folksy air may have been strategy to "work" a jury? I'll refrain from lawyer jokes for now. The guy did have a pleasing air on TV like with Larry King.

So one time Spence made the point that once you gather a preponderance of facts about a legal case, the earlier prima facie view can sink. And the "hot coffee" case could represent exhibit 'A' of this.

The news media had a role in screwing it all up. That's a priority of yours truly to weigh. Media has always been my thing.

So after the hot coffee incident which involved the elderly Stella Liebech, Jane Pauley was sitting in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. She got the facts wrong. Pauley hasn't disappeared but she appears to have lost most of the high profile she once had. Personally I think she had a put-on smile tailor-made for the grocery store checkout magazines. (There was a time when I would have said "women's magazines" but hoo boy.)

Pauley reported that Liebech was driving the car when the coffee spilled. Wrong-O.

People can and do criticize the Internet but in fact it is quite a merciless meritocracy. Really it is. A careless journo really does get shot down fast and mercilessly. I would argue that was less so in the glory days of the evening network news, although that rings of being counterintuitive. There were people "let past the velvet rope" in the media back then, people who formed sort of a self-protecting fraternity. Nice and cozy if you're a member. The ideology-based media was left handing out pamphlets on street corners.

It is easier to make inroads today and to sever, in effect, the velvet rope.

By any other name. . .

Let's get back to the Jason Ravnsborg case, the South Dakota attorney general. He told the two investigative guys that his name is pronounced "Roundsberg" but the media is reluctant to go with that. Say "Roundsberg" and people won't know who you're talking about. The initial rush by the media had the name pronounced the way you'd guess based on the spelling. Looks like the media really wants to keep going with that.

Should I care? Well if the guy says his own name is pronounced a certain way, we really ought to go with it.

Sensational claim, but true?

Ravnsborg now claims that the guy he ran over and killed wanted to die. That's pretty drastic. On the surface the assertion looks untoward, n'est-ce pas? Should we indict Mr. Ravnsborg further? Should Governor Noem pile on further? Let's just say it's uncertain. Are we really seeing new "facts" coming out? We are just seeing new statements.

The statements can seem intriguing and/or shocking, but then we must peek past the veneer to weigh possible motivations of those speaking. What a tangled web we can weave.

Ravnsborg says his victim Joe Boever was depressed and suicidal and may have thrown himself in front of Ravnsborg's vehicle as the AG drove home from a GOP fundraising event in Redfield SD. The date: September 12. There's a filing that quotes Boever's cousin Barnabas Nemec saying Boever was "an alcoholic with a brooding depressive streak."

The most eye-popping statement from the cousin was that in December of 2019, Boever told him if he did kill himself, he would "do so by being struck by a vehicle." Is this a factual quote from the deceased?

It's just possible there's intra-family conflict at work here, perhaps a feud, if not pre-existing then developing now. Why might that be the case? Maybe, just maybe, the cousin with the revelatory statements is not in the immediate orbit of people who would receive what would likely be a $ windfall in a lawsuit. Admittedly speculation here, but this is a high-profile case involving a high-ranking public official as alleged perpetrator.

We are appreciating how lawyers make their money. The veracity of the cousin's statement will have to be peeled apart. If true it would appear to shine significantly new light on the case. However, Ravnsborg could still be roundly criticized for not paying more attention from the wheel of his Taurus outside of Highmore SD. Would he not have been aware of someone jumping out in front of his vehicle? The victim's glasses ended up inside Ravnsborg's car.

For sure the late Larry King would be doing shows about this.

Oh, Barnabus - rather an oddball name - lives in a suburb of Detroit MI, pretty detached.
Boever had separated from his wife. I don't know how traumatic that can be - I've never been married, as I am risk-averse. The filing states that Boever had sought assistance for mental issues. He was using Lorazepam for anxiety. The Daily Beast reports that a bottle was found in his pickup with 12 pills in it. "It had been filled with an order of 90 pills just a day earlier."

Maybe the bottom line is this: Why did Ravnsborg have to be out on the Godforsaken roads of South Dakota after dark, when he had been at a Republican fundraiser? Why? Why do South Dakota Republicans need to raise money? Seems you can win election in South Dakota just by having an "R" next to your name.

Our one-time governor of Minnesota, Rudy Perpich, got headlines by claiming South Dakota was "50th in everything." Bill Janklow gave South Dakota drivers rather a reputation with his "speeding laws be damned" attitude. And now this.