PIERRE, S.D. —South Dakota's attorney general is considering an investigation into allegations of nepotism against Gov. Kristi Noem 's possible involvement in her adult daughter's application to a state-backed realty appraiser certification.
"I have been contacted by concerned citizens and legislators," Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg said in a statement issued on Wednesday, Sept. 29. "I am actively reviewing their concerns and I will be following the steps prescribed in codified law in relation to those questions."
Ravnsborg's interest in scrutinizing the retirement of Sherry Bren, a longtime realty appraiser certifier with the Department of Labor & Regulation, as well as a July 2020 reported meeting between Bren and Noem, was first reported on Tuesday evening by Dakota News Now . That 2020 meeting followed an initial move to deny Kassidy Peters , Noem's daughter, for a certification.
The Associated Press and South Dakota Public Broadcasting have reported that Bren was paid $200,000 by state officials to withdraw a wrongful firing complaint she and her attorney filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this year.
A potential investigation would be the latest turn in a rocky relationship between Republicans Noem and Ravnsborg. Noem earlier this year called for Ravnsborg's resignation for striking and killing a pedestrian last fall along a highway in central South Dakota. Ravnsborg pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges in that fatal wreck, and now faces a possible impeachment by the South Dakota Legislature in a special session Nov. 9.
