SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Top priorities for Attorney General Marty Jackley during the upcoming legislative session will be bills on topics ranging from expanding South Dakota’s 24/7 sobriety program to targeting potential public corruption, he said Wednesday.
Jackley will propose new criminal conflict-of-interest penalties for public officials, changing it to theft, which is a felony when the value exceeds $1,000, from the current misdemeanor self-dealing penalty.
“A public official is entrusted with taxpayer monies, and when a public official misapplies those monies for their own benefit or gain, they should be treated like anyone else,” Jackley said.
He said the proposal was in part motivated by recent high-profile scandals that have resulted in deaths, including alleged theft and an attempted cover-up at a Platte-based educational cooperative and what authorities have called financial misconduct involving the EB-5 visa program.
Jackley plans also to ask lawmakers to add to a list of crimes that don’t receive the presumption of probation at sentencing, wanting to include possession of a firearm by a felon, assault by a prisoner in a county jail and promoting the prostitution of a minor. A separate bill would stiffen sentences for vehicular homicide.
Jackley also wants to allow authorities to release criminal booking photos by making them a public record under state law, which he said would improve transparency and “further assist the media and the public in the proper identification of individuals in the criminal process.”
South Dakota’s 24/7 sobriety program started in 2005. Participants come to a site each morning and evening to take an alcohol breath test. Those who live farther away or who have difficulty remaining sober wear alcohol-monitoring bracelets or have ignition interlock systems in their vehicles.
Jackley is proposing to broaden sobriety testing methods to include a mobile device that provides immediate results, a GPS reading and facial recognition confirmation. He said the goal is to make sure officials are staying on top of advances in technology, calling mobile breath alcohol testing devices “a good tool for the toolbox.”
Incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lance Russell said Jackley is generally moving in the right direction and that most of the measures will receive favorable treatment during the session, which opens Tuesday at the state Capitol in Pierre.
“I think it’s long overdue that the state of South Dakota takes a much stronger look at conflicts of interest and corruption,” the Republican from Hot Springs said.
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