Attorney General proposes legislation to prevent corruption

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Two Pierre women have been indicted on fraud-related charges connected to crimes committed while they were both employees of the South Dakota Department of Revenue.

Lynne Hunsley and Danielle Degenstein were indicted on Oct. 1 by a Hughes County grand jury.

Hunsley faces five felony and two misdemeanor charges for allegedly falsifying documents to avoid taxation on her own vehicle registrations.

Degenstein was indicted on one misdemeanor for allegedly concealing her knowledge of a felony to authorities as she was the notary on documents also in question by another employee, who is no longer living.

In light of these and past corruption issues, Attorney General Marty Jackley said it’s time for change.

Jackley hopes new legislation will detect and prevent corruption in South Dakota. He said there are new people in Pierre and along with growing public support, it’s time to put more teeth into corruption laws.

With DCI agents at the side of Attorney General Jackley, he said more could be done to prevent corruption in South Dakota.

“EB five, Gear Up, Department of Social Services revenue, and I think it’s time to do something about it," Jackley said.

Jackley proposed legislation called the Government Anti-Corruption Act.

“People want the taxpayer dollars protected. Number two, there is a different group in Pierre that I think it’ll be more well-received," Jackley explained.

The act would address conflict of interest concerns at four levels, including mandatory reporting and establishing a state employee financial whistleblower line.

“But a supervisor has credible information of a theft over a set amount, probably $1,000 that would be a mandatory report to the Attorney General or a separate crime,” Jackley said. “Seems something inappropriate to be able to come forth and not have consequences.”

The third approach would include more in-depth auditing.

“And fourth, transparency and that transparency should apply also to the Attorney General, I would be happy to come before the legislature every session and provide a summary of how many reports we received, what we did with those reports, how many we investigated, and how many charges we brought,” Jackley said.

In 2017, SB-27 was designed to address corruption issues, but Jackley was disappointed by the final amendment.

“It was a battle to get in what we could get in. And we had to give away way more than we should have to get it passed,” Jackley said.

Former Senator Lance Russell was on the Judiciary Committee at that time, also working to get the bill passed.

“I’ve always been perplexed at the hostility toward bringing public corruption type of tools into our statutory framework because I’ve always felt that we just have an inadequate ability to bring to hold these people to account," Russell said.

Jackley said there could be additional charges for other state employees, but he believed of the 14,000 state workers, most are honest and valuable to South Dakota.