Relief Marks End of Janklow Trial

As attorney Roger W. Ellyson walked into his office in Watertown late Tuesday, the phones were ringing and the pile of messages was almost an inch thick.

Friends called. So did neighbors, family, even total strangers. And nearly everyone left a message of weary thanks to the man who successfully prosecuted Rep. William J. Janklow

“I can’t believe it. Congratulations,” one note to Ellyson said. “It’s over?” asked another.

Monday night, a hometown jury had convicted Janklow of second-degree manslaughter for running a stop sign and killing a motorcyclist. Hours later, the state’s lone congressman announced he would resign Jan. 20. With that, Janklow -- a former state attorney general and four-term governor -- signaled an end to a political reign that has stretched over 30 years.

Echoing the notes on Ellyson’s desk and the messages filling his e-mail inbox, residents in this agricultural town of 2,300 speak of Janklow’s conviction with a similar sense of exhaustion and disbelief. For many people, the guilty verdict is vindication. But for some, the trial represents the loss of a local hero.

“We got a couple calls saying that I was a horrible person, that I’d given South Dakota a black eye,” said Ellyson, who was co-prosecutor in the felony trial. “But most people just seemed relieved.”

Over the years, South Dakota and Janklow have become synonymous. Many people either loved him, or loved to hate him -- particularly in Janklow’s hometown here, where his mother and sister live.

But for residents like James Erickson, whatever respect they have for Janklow and his political accomplishments is overshadowed by what they see as preferential treatment. That the jury treated a favored son like an average citizen was considered to be a comeuppance that Janklow long deserved.

“You’ve just got to understand, out here he was god,” said Erickson, a student at South Dakota State University who works at a nearby casino. “He was arrogant and it was accepted. No one even thought to say something about it, because it just wasn’t done. Now, that’s changed.”

Stories of Janklow’s fierce temper were legendary, as were those of his persuasiveness as a public speaker. And, of course, there were the tales of his aggressive driving.

On Tuesday, locals at the Flandreau Bakery recalled the story of two reporters who were riding in 2002 with then-Gov. Janklow, when he drove 99 mph through heavy smoke down a mountain highway in the Black Hills to escape a forest fire.

Janklow had tried to go faster, but his sport utility vehicle had a built-in computer that prevented the former politician from driving faster than 99 mph.

Over coffee and chocolate-glazed doughnuts, residents debated the verdict and the evidence. They recalled Janklow’s driving history -- which included 12 speeding tickets, dating from 1990 through 1994, and three traffic accidents in 1993 alone.

If they had a driving record like that, reasoned Richard Jorgenson, they probably would have lost their licenses long ago.

“It almost seems like it’s still a dream,” said Jorgenson, as he sipped a cup of coffee at the Flandreau Bakery. “A lot of people feel that justice was done. I’m just tired about it all.”

Agreed Harold Boever, “He got his heels clipped. Who knew that could happen here in Flandreau?”

That sense of justice was felt by many. Tuesday morning, radio stations in eastern South Dakota seemed to take more calls from listeners happy with the verdict than those who were angry about it.

The Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls allowed the public to post opinions on the verdict to its Web site. Within hours, more than 130 postings filled the screen. The opinions appeared to be dominated by those who felt Janklow got what he deserved.

A Sioux Falls person wrote, “Those of you that are now calling for Mr. Janklow’s head make me sick.... How quickly you have forgotten what good this great man has done for your great state. He will pay for that day for the rest of his life, and then it will be God who will judge him, not you.”

Countered someone from nearby Trent, S.D.: “What comes around, goes around.”

Few people here believe Janklow will receive a prison term at his sentencing hearing on Jan. 20, or that he even should. At the Fat Boys Bar, which sports a sign with a man sitting on a motorcycle, Dorothy Anderson mulled over the former politician’s fate.

Janklow did the right thing in resigning, she said. And for her, that’s punishment enough.

“It was an accident. Tragic, but an accident,” said Anderson, who lives in Miller, S.D.