The whole truth, and nothing but the truth??
AG Jackley issued a statement recently which gives his “spin” on the Bosworth prosecution.
“the state does not usually discuss plea negotiations, based upon the continued misrepresentations of both law and fact by Mrs Bosworth and the Bosworth campaign representatives I will generally confirm:
1). Mrs Bosworth’s public statement (ap) that she would have been required to plead to every felony count is absolutely false and inaccurate and her lawyers have been advised of that in writing;
2) While the Attorney General has many responsibilities, licensing physicians is not one of those responsibilities. The state medical licensing board made up of South Dakota physicians determines medical licensing issues. Because at the Secretary of State’s request the Attorney General handled the criminal prosecution the Attorney General is not involved in providing legal advice to the medical board in relation to Mrs Bosworth’s potential medical license issue;
3) Before bringing any charges I consulted with my colleague state attorneys general and there are several cases of similar type petition violations such as the Butch Morgan’s case out of Indiana;
4) All plea negotiation attempts by the Attorney General would have put Mrs Bosworth in a better place then she currently is in relation to any potential sentence or permanent record.”
Bosworth Attorney, Robert VanNorman, had this to say…
…about allegations that the Jackley team refused to consider plea bargains which did not include FELONIES for petitions violations.
“I understand that there has been a controversy about whether or not Dr. Bosworth went to trial for dramatic effect as opposed to having been willing to settle her case pretrial. The defense always was open to discussing plea bargain terms that would have been based on a high grade misdemeanor(s). The State consistently refused that approach, insisting generally on a plea bargain based on a minimum of two felony charges.”
1. Jackley’s statement claims Bosworth is saying she would have been “required to 
plead guilty to every felony” isn’t what I have heard her saying. Maybe I missed something…
2. Jackley’s assertion of the “similar” case of Butch Morgan seems to misrepresent the facts. He seems to be setting the stage to justify his over-reaching prosecution of Bosworth. One reporter had this to say about the Morgan Case, “Morgan and three others were convicted of forging names on petitions..” Morgan was described as the “ringleader and mastermind”. Intentionally forging names on petitions is a far different charge than “not witnessing” signatures. Not very similar at all.
3. Jackley’s claim that he “is not involved in providing legal advice to the medical board in relation to Mrs Bosworth’s potential medical license issue,” could be truthful… or not. It doesn’t seem to square with the information provided by Bosworth attorney, VanNorman who says,
“An Assistant Attorney General, currently, William Golden, is assigned as counsel to the S.D. Medical Board. From time to time the Board uses outside counsel (private practitioners) to handle, at least, portions of licensing procedures. In Dr. Bosworth’s case, a private practitioner for the Board has been in touch with me following the jury verdicts. Prior to the verdicts earlier this year when I had a question about an administrative licensing issue for Dr. Bosworth, Assistant Attorney General Golden was my contact for the Board.”
4. Jackley KNOWS that even ONE felony likely results in the loss of Bosworth’s license to practice medicine. How then, does a minimum of TWO place her in a better position??
From the beginning, this has been an exercise in abuse of power and over-reaching prosecution (some have called it PERSECUTION). It is important to note that other “similar” (at least one identical) cases of petition violations in South Dakota have gone completely un-prosecuted by Jackley. Hmmm…
While Jackley feels compelled to issue a justification for his actions in the Bosworth case, he seems to be pretty quiet on the allegations of Hickey petition violations.
Why only Bosworth? Why only felonies?
***Gordon Howie is an author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***
“It’s not about right or left, it’s about Right or Wrong.”
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I’m pretty simple – Stay out of the limelight these days. What I have seen with this Bosworth trial has been totally ridiculous. Discussing to watch but I did watch most of it. A person steps out to do something for the State of South Dakota and because of an honest error is completely destroyed. What is the matter with South Dakota. There little AG’s all over the place that think someone needs to be put down. They forget – where mercy is giving mercy will be received.
My question is: Where was the appropriate outrage when Jackley went after disabled veteran Dan Willard? Willard was accused of exercising his freedom of speech (failing to put a website on a robocall?!?!?) in which the state spent tens of thousands of dollars going after him for a $250 fine misdemeanor (4-Day trial!). THEN, slimy establishment cronies Dan Lederman and Joel Arends filed SLAPP lawsuits against Willard!
Sorry, Bosworth perjured herself. Arends suborned that perjury and should have been prosecuted but he’s a Jackley crony.
Same thing I picked up in his deceptive statement…he KNEW he gave her no choice to plead to a misdemeanor…only a felony. And pleading down from 12 felonies to 2 is like offering a plea to be hung by 2 ropes instead of 12. He knows that even 1 felony will destroy her; will stop her from getting paid from any work she has already done; will stop all insurance companies from paying her; will instantly plunge her and her family into poverty. He knows she cannot hold her State-granted Medical license if she has a felony.