Hometown Jury to Decide Congressman’s Fate

On a typical day, the tractors and grain bins outside the Moody County Courthouse outnumber the people inside. The baby-blue ceiling is peeling and chipped, the marble steps are flecked with mud, and three court employees -- a clerk, a stenographer and a judge -- often deal with domestic cases. The clerk knows petitioners by their first names.

This morning, however, just about everyone in the state would recognize the man sitting at the defense table: South Dakota’s lone congressman.

Republican Rep. William J. Janklow is set to stand trial, charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of a motorcyclist. Authorities say he ran a stop sign at more than 70 mph in a 55 mph zone on a rural road in August, striking and killing Randolph E. Scott, a 55-year-old farmer from Hardwick, Minn.

If convicted, Janklow -- who also is charged with misdemeanor reckless driving, speeding and failure to obey a stop sign -- faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Prosecutors have filled a storeroom with evidence and submitted a long witness list in preparation for the trial, which is expected to last a week.

The defense team, court documents show, plans to call politicos such as Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and a team of medical experts to bolster its case. Janklow, his attorneys and the prosecutors declined to comment further on the case.

And many in this farmland hamlet of 2,300 people say they will watch the proceedings with an air of resignation. This, after all, is Janklow’s hometown.

They knew the politician long before he was a state attorney general and four-term governor. They remember his delinquency as a teenager. They roll their eyes at tales of Janklow in his Cadillac, screaming along South Dakota’s back roads.

Many of them firmly believe that the man they’ve voted for in countless elections could never be convicted.

“He’ll probably go free with a slap on the wrist,” said Les Kramer, 47, as he and his family picked up banana bread at the Flandreau Bakery for Thanksgiving. “Out here, Janklow acts like he’s God, and everyone lets him be.”

For more than two decades, Janklow, 64, has been a larger-than-life political figure in a state known for its fierce frontier soul. It’s the kind of place where the Sioux Falls Airport sees the need to remind passengers that rifles are not allowed as carry-on baggage.

And through it all, Janklow’s habit of speeding was well-known.

Janklow’s driving history includes 12 speeding tickets, dating from the late 1980s through the early ‘90s, and three traffic accidents in 1993 alone.

“He’s always considered himself above the law,” said state Sen. William J. Napoli (R-River City). “When we heard about the [latest] accident, the general reaction at the capital was: ‘We knew this was going to happen.’ But we didn’t think for a minute that he’d kill someone.”

Janklow even joked about his driving in his 1999 State of the State address. The then-governor, speaking in the third person, said: “Bill Janklow speeds when he drives -- shouldn’t, but he does. When he gets the ticket he pays it; but if someone told me I was going to jail for two days for speeding, my driving habits would change.”

After the fatal accident last summer, Janklow apologized to the Scott family.

But at a news conference days later, the politician shifted into a defensive stance.

“I’ve gone to a lot of crises in South Dakota,” Janklow told reporters gathered in Flandreau, “and I know how fast you all drive to get there too, every one of you.” As the news conference continued, Janklow repeatedly forgot questions directed toward him and referred to his sorrow at the “Robertson” family’s loss -- referring to Scott’s relatives.

Janklow blamed the mistakes on injuries he had suffered in the accident, which ranged from a broken hand to head trauma that led to some bleeding into his brain. The politician did not see a doctor until the day after the accident.

Part of Janklow’s defense, court documents show, will focus on medical issues.

A recently filed report states that Janklow, a diabetic, had not eaten properly the day of the accident and could have had a slower reaction time because of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.

The report, written by Dr. Fred Lovrien of Sioux Falls, also said Janklow was taking drugs for hypertension that could have masked low blood sugar. This backs the defense’s belief, as outlined in court papers, that Janklow didn’t know his driving ability was impaired.

Circuit Judge Rodney Steele, who will be presiding over the case, ruled in November that the jury cannot be told of Janklow’s driving record.

But Steele will allow prosecutors to present the testimony of Jennifer Walters, who alleges that in December 2002 she had a close call with Janklow at the same intersection where Scott died. Walters did not file a complaint with the police. “It would be a waste of my time to press the issue any further as he was Bill Janklow, and I felt nothing would ever be done anyway,” she said, according to court documents.

Political experts say Janklow’s trial will be a case study on whether the powerful can be held accountable for their actions.

“We have this quaint notion in the United States that no one is above the law,” said Charles Lewis, founder and executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization in Washington that investigates abuses of power by governments. “If a public official can literally run over somebody and not pay the consequences, then we don’t have a democracy.”

In the eyes of many residents of Flandreau, whether Janklow is found guilty or not, having to serve out justice to the town’s favored son is an unwelcome task. After all, the town sign that welcomes visitors -- and is only steps from the local cemetery -- proudly announces that Flandreau is Janklow’s hometown.

“My cousin and my aunt both got called for jury duty on Monday,” said James Erickson, a pharmacology student in nearby Brookings, S.D. “I know they don’t want to go. No one wants to be on that jury.”

Indeed, many people wondered why neither side had asked to move the trial to nearby Sioux Falls, the state’s largest city, with more than 123,000 residents.

Prosecutors and Janklow’s attorneys declined to comment on the matter.

“To be honest, this case has gotten so much media coverage, I can’t think of a single place in the state where you’re going to get a completely impartial jury,” said Jason Glodt, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party. “At least it’s happening in his hometown, where people know him.”