Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Family outraged after South Dakota TOP COP mows down pedestrian & says, 'I thought it was a deer!'

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Family outraged after South Dakota TOP COP mows down pedestrian & says, 'I thought it was a deer!' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Well, according to reports, there
0:16
Speaker 1: is a quote cover up. The South Dakota Attorney General
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Speaker 1: has been branded a quote coward who is quote saving
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Speaker 1: his own ass. What do you think a man is dead?
0:34
Speaker 1: A man was mowed down on a public highway. I
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Speaker 1: want answers. I don't care if he's the AG. I
0:44
Speaker 1: don't care if he's the King of England. We want answers.
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Beaver's cousin, Nicknamick, also identified
1:05
Speaker 1: the body. It just seems like the whole the whole
1:08
Speaker 1: process was just put on the back burner, and they
1:13
Speaker 1: could have got Victor up there a heck of a
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Speaker 1: lot sooner to take a statement or identify a body
1:21
Speaker 1: or something. Beaver's wife also has concerns, how can you
1:26
Speaker 1: not see someone walking down the road and for no
1:33
Speaker 1: sirens to go off around here is highly unusual because
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Speaker 1: anytime there's an accident or anything. Why did my husband
1:40
Speaker 1: lie in a ditch for twenty two hours? Why were
1:45
Speaker 1: no alarms sounded off over here when the accident happened.
1:50
Speaker 1: I mean, we have no answers yet, and right now
1:54
Speaker 1: I'm just raw and I just lost the man of
2:00
Speaker 1: my life. I guess she is raw and numb. Not
2:05
Speaker 1: only did he lie there in a ditch for twenty
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Speaker 1: two hours after being mowed down by the South Dakota
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Speaker 1: Attorney General, the top got of the state. Just think
2:16
Speaker 1: about it. What if he was alive for twenty one
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Speaker 1: of those hours and could have been saved, his life
2:25
Speaker 1: saved for Pete's sake, But it wasn't reported, and the
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Speaker 1: victim in this case, Joe Beaver, in the prime of
2:33
Speaker 1: his life, is dead again. Thank you for being with
2:39
Speaker 1: us here at Fox Nation and series See eleven. We're
2:43
Speaker 1: not letting go of this case with me an all
2:46
Speaker 1: star panel. Sierra Gillespie Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
2:50
Speaker 1: Doctor Catherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County that's
2:56
Speaker 1: in Buffalo. Greg Smith, Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff's
3:00
Speaker 1: Office in Kansas and the executive director of the Kelsey
3:03
Speaker 1: Smith Foundation at Kelsey's Army dot com. Doctor Debbie Joffe
3:08
Speaker 1: Ellis Psychologists, Adjunct Professor, Columbia. You can find her at
3:12
Speaker 1: Debbie Joffe Ellis dot com. James A. Shell Nutt twenty
3:16
Speaker 1: seven years the Metro major case including swat now lawyer
3:21
Speaker 1: at shell Nut Lawfirm dot com. Two special guests joining
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Speaker 1: me now Victor Nimick, the victim's brother who was called
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Speaker 1: to identify his brother's body. Nick Nimick, cousin of the victim,
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Speaker 1: and former state senator. Now, Nick Nimick, You're a big
3:42
Speaker 1: exception for me because I usually don't have politicians, former
3:46
Speaker 1: or current oncrime online dot com or on Fox's Nation.
3:51
Speaker 1: But in your case, I'm making a big, big exception
3:55
Speaker 1: because I think politics are deeply, deeply embedded and what's
4:02
Speaker 1: happening right now. So I'd like to welcome you to
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Speaker 1: Crime Stories. I want to go first to Victor Nimick.
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Speaker 1: This is Joe Beaver's Joe, if I might call him that. Yes, brother,
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Speaker 1: Actually i'm his cousin. Thank you, thank you. I'm mistaken.
4:18
Speaker 1: Nick and I are brothers. Were both Joe's Thank you.
4:22
Speaker 1: You know it's interesting to me, Victor. I remember after
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Speaker 1: my fiance was a murdered, I did not want to
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Speaker 1: see his body. I did not want to see his
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Speaker 1: body at the funeral. I did not want to identify
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Speaker 1: his body. Yeah, at the time, I mean as a
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Speaker 1: young girl, I didn't want to do that. In retrospect.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad I didn't because that would be my memory.
4:44
Speaker 1: Tell me how it is. This is a cousin of
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Speaker 1: Joe Beaver, Victor Nimick. You were called in to identify
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Speaker 1: your cousin. How did that happen? Well throughout that day,
4:57
Speaker 1: that was a Sunday, I had been worried about my
5:01
Speaker 1: cousin because I knew there was a crash scene out
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Speaker 1: on the highway by our little small town. And I
5:10
Speaker 1: had made plans the night before to stop at my
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Speaker 1: cousin's house on Sunday, and we were going to take
5:19
Speaker 1: care of some work on his pickup, and he wasn't around,
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Speaker 1: and I just had a bad feeling that the reason
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Speaker 1: he wasn't at his house was because of the crash
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Speaker 1: or accident scene that was out on the highway. And
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Speaker 1: I had called our local sheriff and you know, asking
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Speaker 1: him some questions and basically waited around all day and
5:46
Speaker 1: wait a minute, you call the sheriff and they didn't
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Speaker 1: tell you anything. No, they just told me to wait.
5:51
Speaker 1: You know, I want to go to you, Greg Smith's
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Speaker 1: Special Deputy Sheriff, Johnson County Sheriff. When you couldn't find
6:00
Speaker 1: Keeltsy your daughter. You knew immediately something was very wrong,
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Speaker 1: didn't you. Yes, I wonder what it is, Greg. Maybe
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Speaker 1: it's not as much of a hunch as I think
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Speaker 1: it is. Maybe it's an instinct born of a million
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Speaker 1: different pieces of data that we are assimilating within our
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Speaker 1: minds and our bodies. But you're hearing Victor Nimic state
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Speaker 1: when his cousin wasn't there on Sunday and where he
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Speaker 1: should where he should be, where he always is, they
6:36
Speaker 1: were going to work on the truck very wrong. That
6:39
Speaker 1: sounds like something you once told me. Yeah, I mean,
6:42
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you know your loved ones, and
6:46
Speaker 1: those gut feelings you have usually are correct. And also
6:49
Speaker 1: there's a matter of routine, James Shelnott, I don't mean
6:54
Speaker 1: like standard sop. I mean people have a routine. I
6:58
Speaker 1: get up at five every morning, I make a cup
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Speaker 1: of hot tea and I start working, and then at
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Speaker 1: this time I wake up the twins, at this time
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Speaker 1: I take them to school, at this time I'm in
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Speaker 1: the studio. That is habit, that is routine. And for
7:14
Speaker 1: Joe Beaver not to be at home when he's supposed
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Speaker 1: to meet his cousin that was very unlike him. That
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Speaker 1: type of evidence, in my mind, it's very powerful. Shell
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Speaker 1: nutt Oh, It's critical. And you know, one of the
7:26
Speaker 1: first things that an investigator wants to do in any
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Speaker 1: case is get to know the victim, and a lot
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Speaker 1: of that involves what was their routine. You're correct? Also
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Speaker 1: with me is Nick Nimmick, cousin of Joe Beaver, former
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Speaker 1: state senator. Tell me about this AGM Jason Roundsburg. Tell
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Speaker 1: me that, let's see, this is in South Dakota. I
7:50
Speaker 1: believe your capital would be Pierre correct, it's Bismarck's North Dacote.
7:54
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Yep, Bismark's North Dakota South Quota is
7:58
Speaker 1: pier Rawburg was elected in twenty eighteen. He had actually
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Speaker 1: the way the Republican Party picks their AG nominee is
8:14
Speaker 1: at a state convention, and he had he had been
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Speaker 1: an unsuccessful fourth place candidate in the US Senate primary
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Speaker 1: a couple of years before, but he he spent there
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Speaker 1: next two years going to every every Republican county meeting
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Speaker 1: in the state, schmoozing delegates to the state eventual state convention,
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Speaker 1: and when he got there, they all knew him, and
8:42
Speaker 1: they nominated him for their attorney general candidate. He had
8:46
Speaker 1: very little, very little experiences an attorney general. He had
8:51
Speaker 1: never tried a case in the courtroom. Yes, he had
8:56
Speaker 1: never tried a case. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let me get
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Speaker 1: my head around that, because you know how much it
9:01
Speaker 1: burns me up, Nick and Victor to have a judge
9:05
Speaker 1: up on the bench that's never tried a case. And
9:07
Speaker 1: it has happened. It happens a lot, and then they're
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Speaker 1: telling me what's admissible and not admissible. And I got
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Speaker 1: a top cop over a whole state that's never tried
9:18
Speaker 1: a case. Guys, as you can see, we're off on
9:21
Speaker 1: a tangent. That's my fault. I'm steering in the car
9:24
Speaker 1: and we're way out in the wheeze. Let me get
9:25
Speaker 1: it back in the middle of the rope. But just
9:27
Speaker 1: so you know, this is exactly how prosecutors, investigators, and
9:33
Speaker 1: I assume defense attorneys work on their cases. They get
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Speaker 1: with a core group of people and they talk about it,
9:39
Speaker 1: or they're investigator in my case and would say, well,
9:42
Speaker 1: what about this, and what about that? And who is this?
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Speaker 1: It doesn't really go in any logical manner as you're
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Speaker 1: feeling out what had happened. Prime Stories with Nancy Grace.
10:05
Speaker 1: We are talking about the death of a man in
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Speaker 1: the prime of his life, found after twenty two hours
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Speaker 1: in a ditch on a public road. How did that happen?
10:15
Speaker 1: You know what? Back in the middle of the road
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Speaker 1: to Sierra Gillespie Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, what happened? Okay,
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Speaker 1: So if we back up to Saturday, September twelfth of
10:27
Speaker 1: this year, it all happened at about ten thirty pm,
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Speaker 1: and that's when Attorney General Roundford was headed back to
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Speaker 1: Pierre on US Highway fourteen east of Highmore, South Dakota.
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Speaker 1: And this is really rural area like this. Occasionally you'll
10:45
Speaker 1: pass like a farm or a house or you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: things like that, but it's not like you're in town
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Speaker 1: with like street light journey. So it's a pretty dark area.
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Speaker 1: Ten thirty at night, that's I mean, that's nighttime. You know,
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Speaker 1: it's dark out. And see report it's hitting a deer.
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Speaker 1: He said that he hit a deer on that US
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Speaker 1: Highway fourteen, got out of his car, used what he
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Speaker 1: had his cell phone. When you turn on the flashlight
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Speaker 1: on your cell phone to kind of look around. He
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Speaker 1: said he wasn't able to find anything, but did report
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Speaker 1: to the sheriff's office that he hit a deer. And
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Speaker 1: that's kind of where this all started. Okay, I'm not
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Speaker 1: saying you're wrong, Sierrah Gillespie. You're reporting the facts as
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Speaker 1: we have been told. Jackie. Keep out the picture of
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Speaker 1: the vehicle that you had, what you and I've been
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Speaker 1: looking at, because you know, maybe I'm looking at the
11:36
Speaker 1: wrong car. Don't think I am. But Victor, isn't the
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Speaker 1: A G. Brownsburg's front wind She'll cracked, it's got a
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Speaker 1: hole in it. Then blow that up forming place. Yet,
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's big and it's on the driver's side.
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Speaker 1: Excuse me, the passenger side. There's a big hole. In
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Speaker 1: other words, what I'm getting at. Your cousin, Joe Beaver
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Speaker 1: hit the windshield? How can you not see that? As
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Speaker 1: a person, I'll never forget once I hit a dog
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Speaker 1: on the way home from work at Sears Roebuck, my
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Speaker 1: first job, and I was going really slowly. I'd stopped
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Speaker 1: coming off the interstate, then turn left. I was going
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Speaker 1: about twenty five miles an hour, maybe because I was
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Speaker 1: just coming from a dead stop and the dog. The
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Speaker 1: owner owned a gas station and his dog right now.
12:36
Speaker 1: I pulled over. I ran for help to that gas station,
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Speaker 1: and they came and got their dog, and they told
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Speaker 1: me he lived. I saw what it was. I remember
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Speaker 1: once when a squirrel darted out in front of me.
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Speaker 1: I knew it was a squirrel. Okay, guys, he hit
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Speaker 1: the windshield. How is Roundsburg Victor saying he thought it
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Speaker 1: was a deer. I don't know. And also, I'd like
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Speaker 1: to point out that while this is in a rural area,
13:06
Speaker 1: we're out on wide open prairies also, and an extremely
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Speaker 1: visible highway. We're talking a straight line highway eleven foot
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Speaker 1: wide shoulders and huge wide dishes, dishes. It's it's not
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Speaker 1: like something just darts out from the woods because there
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Speaker 1: are no woods. You know. I just came from your
13:31
Speaker 1: neck of the woods. I took the twins on an
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Speaker 1: RV trip all the way across the country, and we
13:36
Speaker 1: went to both Dakotas, went to Mount Rushmore and wide open. Yes,
13:43
Speaker 1: it is, and you can see from it feels like
13:48
Speaker 1: I could see for miles and miles of prairie and prairie.
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Speaker 1: There were not a lot of forests. You could just
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Speaker 1: see forever. And at night in the light, we could
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Speaker 1: see forever, and I felt like you were the only
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Speaker 1: one on the road. And I remember looking out this
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Speaker 1: was this past summer before your cousin passed away, and
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Speaker 1: it felt like you could see because it's flat and
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Speaker 1: it looks like you can see forever. Well, it looks
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Speaker 1: like you could see for miles and miles. And that's
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Speaker 1: what I understand. That he thought it was a deer. Well,
14:21
Speaker 1: he says he thought it was a deer. Let's put
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Speaker 1: it that way. I've got a whole lot of alarm
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Speaker 1: bells going off in my head as well, because you
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Speaker 1: would think that someone in the position of Attorney General
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Speaker 1: has some sort of not only intelligence, but moral compass.
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Speaker 1: And even if he thought it was a dear, many
14:41
Speaker 1: genuinely caring people just want to follow up to make sure.
14:45
Speaker 1: And also another thing, the fact that he accepted the
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Speaker 1: position whilst having no experience. You know, obviously he had
14:55
Speaker 1: an ambition self agenda once that position, But if he
14:59
Speaker 1: had a dec moral compass, would he really take it
15:02
Speaker 1: on if he hadn't it tried a case. You know,
15:06
Speaker 1: those are all great points, I guess, you know, for
15:09
Speaker 1: it's as judge. As I've practiced in front off. They
15:11
Speaker 1: take a job on the bench, they take the appointment
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Speaker 1: even though they've never tried a case, and then they
15:17
Speaker 1: count on their law clerk to tell him everything that's true. Jack.
15:20
Speaker 1: I hate to tell you that, and that would just
15:22
Speaker 1: burn me up to have a judge tell what are
15:26
Speaker 1: you jumping in? Nick? Or Victor? Oh, this is Victor.
15:29
Speaker 1: I was just going to say, this is a state
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Speaker 1: where the good old boy network runs very deep. Guys,
15:36
Speaker 1: we're talking about Joe Beaver in the prime of his life.
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Speaker 1: Victor Nimick gets called to identify a body to you,
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Speaker 1: Nick Nimick, cousin of Joe Beaver. So how is it
15:50
Speaker 1: that he laid there in a ditch for twenty two
15:55
Speaker 1: hours before his body was found? They actually they on
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Speaker 1: his body at some time the next morning. The Attorney
16:02
Speaker 1: General claims he left here at eight o'clock in the
16:06
Speaker 1: morning and drove back the Hindmore, which about an hour's drive,
16:09
Speaker 1: so that makes it nine o'clock or a little after.
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Speaker 1: And he claims he found the body then that morning.
16:17
Speaker 1: So the body probably laid in the ditch for eleven
16:20
Speaker 1: hours and then it laid in the ditch for the
16:23
Speaker 1: rest of the day while they were doing this investigation
16:28
Speaker 1: with traffic detoured around the location, and they didn't call
16:34
Speaker 1: in either Victor or me to identify this body until
16:42
Speaker 1: eight o'clock that the Sunday evening. So so that was
16:48
Speaker 1: the twenty two hours after after the crash, that that
16:54
Speaker 1: that the body was finally positively identified. Interesting also Nick
17:01
Speaker 1: that his wife, Joe's wife said no siren because I
17:06
Speaker 1: remember growing up in a rural area much like what
17:09
Speaker 1: you're describing, and when we would hear a siren in
17:12
Speaker 1: the distance, which was very rare, we would all stop
17:15
Speaker 1: and say a prayer for wherever they were going and
17:19
Speaker 1: whoever was going to be in that ambulance. Why no siren, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: A good question. Typically when there's a when there's a
17:28
Speaker 1: crash or an accident like that, the sirens sound at
17:32
Speaker 1: the local fire hall because some of the volunteer firefighters
17:36
Speaker 1: and the MPs to come and respond to the to
17:40
Speaker 1: the call. And there was nothing like that at all
17:44
Speaker 1: that Sunday morning. To doctor Kathery Maloney special guests joining me,
17:47
Speaker 1: the Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County, MME. That's Buffalo,
17:52
Speaker 1: New York. Doctor Kathery Maloney, I've been studying the case.
17:57
Speaker 1: I'm just a JD. You're the MD, and from what
17:59
Speaker 1: i've aren't I've been told that based on these injuries,
18:04
Speaker 1: mister Beaver may have been able to been saved. Um, well,
18:09
Speaker 1: that would really depend on the you know, the nature
18:12
Speaker 1: and severity of the injuries. You know, with a high
18:15
Speaker 1: speed collision, um, there's a higher likelihood of having a
18:20
Speaker 1: very severe injury or a fatal injury. But you know,
18:23
Speaker 1: every case is an individual case, so it really depends
18:26
Speaker 1: on the person. Hopefully a good forensic cathologist was able
18:31
Speaker 1: to examine mister Beaver's body and would be able to
18:35
Speaker 1: perhaps shed some light on how long he potentially could
18:38
Speaker 1: have survived and how long he might have survived. What
18:41
Speaker 1: do we know about the injuries themselves? Victor nothing? There
18:48
Speaker 1: hasn't been any information released. All I know is that
18:52
Speaker 1: when we viewed the body, it was quite banged up
18:58
Speaker 1: and a lot of damage, and we only view I
19:03
Speaker 1: guess at the time we could have asked to see
19:08
Speaker 1: the whole body, but I guess I didn't think of
19:11
Speaker 1: it at that time. I in my personal opinion, he
19:17
Speaker 1: was probably dead shortly after the impact but that's just
19:21
Speaker 1: my personal opinion. The head was kind of misshapen and
19:28
Speaker 1: we only saw one side of the head, and I'm
19:32
Speaker 1: assuming that that that they kind of positioned the body
19:37
Speaker 1: in the body bag to display the right side of
19:40
Speaker 1: the head that was less damaged. Time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys,
19:58
Speaker 1: we were talking about it. Man the prime of his life,
20:01
Speaker 1: his wife waiting for him at home. He never makes it.
20:04
Speaker 1: Why because the top cop of the state as run
20:10
Speaker 1: him down in the night and kept going his body
20:14
Speaker 1: lying the ditch twenty two hours. Could he have lived
20:17
Speaker 1: if EMTs had gotten there. We'll never know, will we?
20:21
Speaker 1: To you? Victor, I believe it was you that went
20:25
Speaker 1: to the scene and you were trying to take photos
20:27
Speaker 1: and we're told to stop. Is that correct? That was
20:30
Speaker 1: Nicholas the Positive A few days later? What happened, Nick, Yeah,
20:34
Speaker 1: I was at the scene of the crash on a
20:38
Speaker 1: highway just outside of Highmore and was kind of looking
20:43
Speaker 1: at the bloodstains and the skid marks and trying to
20:46
Speaker 1: wrap my hands around but or trying to wrap my
20:48
Speaker 1: head around what happened to my cousin and hear a
20:52
Speaker 1: flatbed truck with a red Ford Taurus with the blown
20:56
Speaker 1: out windshield. Drove by and went into the South Dakota
21:01
Speaker 1: Department of Transportation Highway maintenance shop, which is right within
21:07
Speaker 1: feet of where this accident happened, and went into a
21:13
Speaker 1: garage there, and the garage door came down, and I
21:16
Speaker 1: hopped in my vehicle and followed it into the into
21:19
Speaker 1: the lot there, and was started getting out of my
21:25
Speaker 1: vehicle to take photographs of the of that Readford Torus
21:30
Speaker 1: with the blown out windshield, and was by three high
21:35
Speaker 1: patrolmen and some assorted other highway patrol individuals that weren't
21:40
Speaker 1: an official highway patrol uniforms and told to remain in
21:44
Speaker 1: my vehicle. And I've seen enough videos of what happens
21:51
Speaker 1: when people don't do exactly what the tops stay. So
21:54
Speaker 1: I stayed in my vehicle and sat there for probably
21:59
Speaker 1: forty five minutes and asked them if I could go
22:02
Speaker 1: in and take a picture, and they refused my request,
22:06
Speaker 1: and I sat and waited, and then eventually asked for
22:13
Speaker 1: permission to leave, and they granted my permission to leave
22:18
Speaker 1: their parking lot. Did you ever get the picture? I
22:22
Speaker 1: did not. The photograph was one that it's taken by
22:26
Speaker 1: some anonymous photographer from High Moor. Later on that day,
22:31
Speaker 1: they pulled that vehicle out of that maintenance shed and
22:37
Speaker 1: he was sitting in the parking lot at that highway
22:39
Speaker 1: maintenance yard, and somebody got a photograph of it, and
22:45
Speaker 1: and I'd like to talk to that person, but I
22:48
Speaker 1: have been unable to find out who submitted. That sounds
22:53
Speaker 1: like they don't want to be found to me because
22:56
Speaker 1: I'd very rarely seen a photo where it doesn't have
22:58
Speaker 1: the name of the photographer. Und I understand that you
23:01
Speaker 1: did a little bit of your own investigation, Nick Nimmick.
23:05
Speaker 1: I've got a picture of you that I'm looking at
23:07
Speaker 1: right now where you are out on the street where
23:11
Speaker 1: the incident occurred, and you're pointing to a dried blotch
23:16
Speaker 1: and skid markings. How long were the skid marks was
23:21
Speaker 1: probably two hundred and twenty eight feet. I measured it
23:25
Speaker 1: with the tape one hundred and fifty foot tape measure,
23:29
Speaker 1: and then there was maybe another thirty feet where you
23:33
Speaker 1: could see that the car had run on the grass
23:36
Speaker 1: at the very edge of the road before it the
23:39
Speaker 1: body came to before the spot where the body probably
23:44
Speaker 1: laid to the day. I went out there and I
23:48
Speaker 1: was looking at This was a couple of days after
23:50
Speaker 1: the accident, and there was still a pool of blood
23:53
Speaker 1: in the grass right there, and there were black flies
23:57
Speaker 1: flying around this spot on the on the very edge
24:00
Speaker 1: of the road, two foot off the pavement, where I
24:04
Speaker 1: think my cousin probably laid and led out. I'm trying
24:09
Speaker 1: to get my mind around what you've just said, Greg Smith,
24:12
Speaker 1: I want to I want you to weigh in on that,
24:16
Speaker 1: James Shelnut as well. Are you telling me Nick that
24:20
Speaker 1: there were two hundred and twenty eight feet of skid
24:23
Speaker 1: marks after the first sign of blood or no, there
24:28
Speaker 1: was there was from the point where I think my
24:32
Speaker 1: cousin was hit, there was the skid The tire skid
24:39
Speaker 1: marks began sixty five ft after that point, and then
24:43
Speaker 1: the tire skid marks continued on till two hundred and
24:49
Speaker 1: twenty eight feet after the impact location, and then the
24:55
Speaker 1: body was two hundred and fifty five feet from the
24:59
Speaker 1: impact occasion. How many feet of skid marks were there
25:03
Speaker 1: before you believe there was impact, before your cousin got hit.
25:07
Speaker 1: From the point of impact where I think my cousin
25:10
Speaker 1: was hit to the first tire skid mark was sixty five.
25:15
Speaker 1: So were there skid marks before he was hit? No, Okay,
25:19
Speaker 1: there were no skid marks before the impact. The skid
25:23
Speaker 1: marks began after the impact. To Greg's he was hit
25:28
Speaker 1: at full speed special duty sheriff out of Johnson County. Greg,
25:34
Speaker 1: what that says to me? And I'm certainly no accident reconstructionist,
25:39
Speaker 1: but that it sounds like the top cop of South Dakota,
25:43
Speaker 1: Jason Rounsberg, drove at least two hundred feet with the victim,
25:53
Speaker 1: Joe Beaver, on the windshield. What I can say from
25:57
Speaker 1: what I've heard and from what I've read, and from
25:59
Speaker 1: me hearing what I just heard now, it sounds like
26:03
Speaker 1: the brakes were not applied until after impacts, which would
26:07
Speaker 1: indicate that the driver did not see that whatever it
26:13
Speaker 1: was that they struck, or were distracted or something was
26:18
Speaker 1: going on to where they weren't paying attention to what
26:20
Speaker 1: was going on in front of them and then hit
26:23
Speaker 1: the brakes. I mean, it's automatic when we hit something,
26:26
Speaker 1: that's usually what we do. There's a reaction time that
26:30
Speaker 1: it takes for our foot to go from accelerator to
26:32
Speaker 1: break and all that. And there's a lot of map
26:35
Speaker 1: that's involved in that, but without If the skid marks
26:39
Speaker 1: happened after impact, that would indicate to me that they
26:42
Speaker 1: did not see, or didn't see until the very last second,
26:45
Speaker 1: that something was there. But I just I don't know.
26:50
Speaker 1: I mean, I of the scene. I agree with you
26:54
Speaker 1: now that I know, based on what Nick what he saw,
27:00
Speaker 1: I think that the skid marks didn't start until impact.
27:05
Speaker 1: But my question is what I'm getting at, James Shelno,
27:08
Speaker 1: let me try you on. That's when I agree with
27:10
Speaker 1: what Greg Smith is saying. How long was the victim
27:14
Speaker 1: on the windshield before he fell off into the ditch?
27:20
Speaker 1: But Ramsburg still said it was a deer. You know that.
27:23
Speaker 1: That's hard to know. Of course, it's hard to know.
27:26
Speaker 1: That's why I've got you on the panel. Yeah, it's
27:30
Speaker 1: it's hard to look. Here's here's a couple of possibilities, okay, um,
27:34
Speaker 1: And I don't know why. You know, the statement has
27:37
Speaker 1: been made that that's where he was hit. It's possible
27:39
Speaker 1: he was hit before these brakes occurred. But if he
27:42
Speaker 1: was hit before the brakes were applied, then at that point,
27:47
Speaker 1: if his body traveled two hundred and something feet past
27:51
Speaker 1: where the car came to a stop, that's what I'm
27:53
Speaker 1: understanding was seven a second ago. Then he would have
27:56
Speaker 1: rode on the windshield of that car, likely for at
28:00
Speaker 1: three and a half to four and a half seconds,
28:02
Speaker 1: and then being ejected off the windshield and probably flung forward.
28:07
Speaker 1: That is down in dirty Mouth, that is without having
28:09
Speaker 1: the luxury of going back to the scene measuring things. Better,
28:13
Speaker 1: get out your Texas instrument, because I'm coming back to
28:16
Speaker 1: you time stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about
28:36
Speaker 1: a man in the prime of his life mowed down,
28:40
Speaker 1: literally mowed down on a public highway by none other
28:43
Speaker 1: than the state top cop who says he thought he
28:46
Speaker 1: hit a deer man lane a ditch. Twenty one hours now,
28:52
Speaker 1: I want to go back to you, Nick Mimick. I'm
28:56
Speaker 1: trying to just like Greg Smith and just like James Sheldon,
28:59
Speaker 1: I'm trying to under stand the numbers. So how far
29:02
Speaker 1: did the skid marks go? Be full intus that's where
29:07
Speaker 1: your cousin landed. Well, there was actually multiple It's even
29:12
Speaker 1: more gruesome. And see that there was there was blood
29:15
Speaker 1: skid marks on the highway that ran parallel with the
29:18
Speaker 1: tire skid marks. So I in my measurements, the first
29:24
Speaker 1: blood skid mark on the on the highway was probably
29:32
Speaker 1: was one hundred and forty feet from the first tire
29:36
Speaker 1: skid marks, So the tire skid marks were going for
29:40
Speaker 1: about one hundred and forty feet, and then there was
29:42
Speaker 1: this blood skid mark that was actually two parallel blood
29:47
Speaker 1: skid marks that but one was six inches wide and
29:51
Speaker 1: one was maybe a foot wide. But what does that mean?
29:56
Speaker 1: Was your cousin being dragged by the car? How did
29:59
Speaker 1: the get on? My theory is that my cousin broke
30:07
Speaker 1: out the windshield, was impartially inside the cab of that
30:11
Speaker 1: car for a time. As the Attorney General slam down
30:15
Speaker 1: his brakes, my cousin became dislodged from the windshield, slid
30:19
Speaker 1: down the hood of that car and fell on the
30:23
Speaker 1: highway and was then drug underneath that car or pushed
30:28
Speaker 1: on in front of that car for for a period
30:31
Speaker 1: of time, by my measurements, over seventy feet from what
30:40
Speaker 1: takes so long to come to a stop going. Well,
30:46
Speaker 1: we don't know that that there just the area where
30:52
Speaker 1: he where the it happened, was just beat into a
30:55
Speaker 1: sixty five speed limits own. He had just exited a
31:00
Speaker 1: forty five mile dollars speed limits on I doubt two
31:05
Speaker 1: thousand eleven Ford Taurus could accelerate in the two hundred
31:12
Speaker 1: feet available from forty five to sixty five, So I
31:15
Speaker 1: think that Attorney General was speeding. Another issue is that
31:23
Speaker 1: the car has to be processed on the inside. To
31:27
Speaker 1: doctor Katherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Erie County, Emmy
31:30
Speaker 1: and Buffalo, you just heard Nicknamic describing the whole in
31:38
Speaker 1: the windshield on the passenger side, in the front, the
31:41
Speaker 1: front windshield. If the body, if the victim had partially
31:47
Speaker 1: been in that car, gone through the windshield, what forensic
31:51
Speaker 1: evidence would you expect to see inside the AG's red Taurus. Well,
31:56
Speaker 1: you would definitely expect to see blood and possibly at
31:59
Speaker 1: the whel cells and those would definitely be on the
32:02
Speaker 1: windshield where the body went through. But if you saw
32:05
Speaker 1: them on the inside too, that could lead you to
32:07
Speaker 1: believe that perhaps the body might have been lodged inside
32:10
Speaker 1: the car, which would mean that perhaps it was removed
32:14
Speaker 1: after the fact, so it might have been stuck in there.
32:16
Speaker 1: For example, epiphilial sales, you mean skin sales, right, So
32:20
Speaker 1: anytime you touch anything, you exchange your DNA. So anytime
32:24
Speaker 1: I touch something I leave a little piece of myself
32:26
Speaker 1: on what I've touched. So you'll be looking for blood, hair,
32:30
Speaker 1: fiber evidence off of a shirt, or epiphilial sales, which
32:34
Speaker 1: are skin cells. And if those are inside the Attorney
32:38
Speaker 1: General's car, what would that mean to you, doctor Maloney?
32:42
Speaker 1: Depending on their location, it could mean that the body
32:45
Speaker 1: had traveled, would mean that the body would have had
32:47
Speaker 1: been have to have been removed from the car as
32:50
Speaker 1: opposed to just sort of striking the windshield and bouncing off.
32:54
Speaker 1: It could mean the body was lodged in the windshield.
32:57
Speaker 1: To you, Nick Nimick, do you believe the body of
33:01
Speaker 1: your cousin was actually partially inside the age's car? You know,
33:07
Speaker 1: I can't say for certain, Nancy. But what I can't
33:11
Speaker 1: say for certain is that that body hit the ground
33:18
Speaker 1: in front of that car one hundred one from what
33:23
Speaker 1: I think is probably the impact, and either pushed along
33:30
Speaker 1: in front of that car or underneath that car for
33:35
Speaker 1: another seventy seventy four. To Victor Nimick, the other cousin
33:40
Speaker 1: of Joby rejoining us today, it's my understanding that the
33:45
Speaker 1: Attorney General says he used his flashlight at on a
33:48
Speaker 1: cell phone to look for what he thought was a
33:51
Speaker 1: dead or injured deer. The sheriff also made a cursory
33:56
Speaker 1: inspection before focusing on returning Ramsburg back to Pierre. Why
34:03
Speaker 1: does that stick in your crawl? Vole had been the
34:08
Speaker 1: county shore for many years. Do you think you should
34:11
Speaker 1: have conducted a better search? Yes? I do. Here's the
34:18
Speaker 1: thing about driving in South Dakota. It's not uncommon to
34:23
Speaker 1: hit a deer. A lot of if you live in
34:26
Speaker 1: this state or any state in this area, everybody knows
34:30
Speaker 1: someone that has hit a deer. I've hit deer before.
34:34
Speaker 1: I've hit deer at nighttime. And the split second before
34:39
Speaker 1: you hit the deer, you go, oh my god, that's
34:41
Speaker 1: a deer, and you hit the brakes. And I've seen
34:46
Speaker 1: many vehicles that have hit deer, and there's one thing
34:50
Speaker 1: that's common amongst all of them is there's deer hair
34:55
Speaker 1: on the car. Whether they've smashed into the windshield or not,
34:59
Speaker 1: there's all waves deer hair on the car. And for
35:04
Speaker 1: something to go through that windshield, if it was a deer,
35:08
Speaker 1: the edges of the windshield would have been surrounded by
35:13
Speaker 1: dear hair everywhere, deer hair and dear flesh and dear manure.
35:21
Speaker 1: So that's like investigative processes for beginners to be able
35:28
Speaker 1: to identify a dear hint. I mean, anyone that's in
35:32
Speaker 1: law enforcement in South Dakota should be able to see
35:35
Speaker 1: that immediately check a Listen to our friends Brad Mallory
35:39
Speaker 1: and Angela Kanecki at Kilo Land News. Six days after
35:45
Speaker 1: a deadly crash involving South Dakota's Attorney in General, the
35:48
Speaker 1: Department of Public Safety spokesman says there are no updates
35:51
Speaker 1: on the investigation. Authorities from three states are looking at
35:55
Speaker 1: as the Saturday night crash near Highmore. If they determined
35:58
Speaker 1: Jason Roundsberg didn't thing illegal, the spokesman says the High
36:02
Speaker 1: County States Attorney would be the one to file the charges.
36:06
Speaker 1: Rounsberg has made national headlines after claiming to hit a
36:09
Speaker 1: deer with his car and then discovering he killed a
36:12
Speaker 1: man the next morning. Governor Christianome has said that the
36:16
Speaker 1: state could expect an extra level of transparency and accountability
36:20
Speaker 1: in this case. The spokesman says investigations like these take time,
36:25
Speaker 1: and there is no word on when the public will
36:27
Speaker 1: get an updates. Interesting to Sierra Gillespie, Crime online dot
36:32
Speaker 1: Com investigative reporter. Has there been an update? I actually
36:37
Speaker 1: did and see No, there has not been an update
36:39
Speaker 1: at all since we first did this story about a
36:41
Speaker 1: month ago. I did some more research and looked into things,
36:45
Speaker 1: and there's nothing. Basically, all we hear from investigators is
36:49
Speaker 1: that this is a linky process. We want to make
36:52
Speaker 1: sure that we're doing it correctly. We want to dot
36:54
Speaker 1: all our eyes and crash our cheese and make sure
36:57
Speaker 1: we're getting everything done. But what we you know, is
37:01
Speaker 1: that they have enlisted outside of state investigators to come
37:06
Speaker 1: and help, so there's no conflict of interest. So they
37:09
Speaker 1: saw so I believe it's North Dakota investigators who are
37:12
Speaker 1: helping with this investigation. Just everything shrouded in mystery is
37:18
Speaker 1: a concern for me. He just heard the government stating
37:22
Speaker 1: that there was going to be transparency, but when Beaver's
37:26
Speaker 1: cousin shows up to take a picture of the age's
37:29
Speaker 1: wrecked car, he's told he couldn't, And then finally, after
37:33
Speaker 1: waiting over an hour, left left. An anonymous picture was
37:39
Speaker 1: then taken that clearly shows the Attorney General Jason Ramsburg's
37:45
Speaker 1: car crashed in the windshell crashed in that is on
37:50
Speaker 1: the front passenger side. Is their blood, hair, fiber, skin
37:57
Speaker 1: evidence of the victim inside the age's car, because if
38:02
Speaker 1: there is, there is no way in h double l
38:05
Speaker 1: he did not know he hit a man to Victor
38:11
Speaker 1: Nimick call to identify his cousin's body. How is mister
38:15
Speaker 1: Beaver's wife at this point, Well, she's I mean, she
38:21
Speaker 1: lost her husband, she's broken up, just trying to figure
38:27
Speaker 1: out how to get through life right now. I mean,
38:30
Speaker 1: that's I guess that's about all we can savor her.
38:34
Speaker 1: She's just as mad as and angry as all of
38:38
Speaker 1: us about not being able to get any information. This
38:44
Speaker 1: state has covered up scandals many times in the past,
38:49
Speaker 1: and this is I believe for the officials in the state,
38:53
Speaker 1: it's just another scandal that they have to cover up.
38:56
Speaker 1: And I believe right now they're just trying to wait
39:00
Speaker 1: it out. If they wait long enough before releasing evidence,
39:04
Speaker 1: then do they really think we're going to forget it?
39:07
Speaker 1: Do they really think that? Well, when it's a state
39:10
Speaker 1: that's been run by the same political party for decade
39:13
Speaker 1: upon decade upon decade, it just I mean, that's what happens.
39:18
Speaker 1: It's the good old boy network. Well, guess what not
39:22
Speaker 1: everybody's part of the good old boy Network. Yeah, we
39:26
Speaker 1: did invite the ag Roundsburger to be on with us today,
39:30
Speaker 1: but his people responded he was not commenting due to
39:34
Speaker 1: an ongoing investigation. We wait as justice and fools Nancy
39:40
Speaker 1: Grace Crime story signing off, goodbye friend,