South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley speaks during a press conference on Dec. 19, 2025, in Sioux Falls. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: John Hult
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – A state Public Integrity Unit fielded 47 complaints of state employee misconduct in its first six months of operations, according to the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office.
Of those complaints, 14 resulted in criminal investigations, four of which have resulted in criminal charges thus far.
The figures are part of a report delivered this week to the Legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee.
At a press conference on the findings Wednesday, Attorney General Marty Jackley said the unit was born of legislation passed last year meant to tighten protections for whistleblowers and address the crush of state employee misconduct allegations that preceded the 2025 legislative session.
The complaints and charges should not cast disparagement over the state’s “14,000 hard-working, dedicated employees,” Jackley said, but should show the state’s commitment to ethical government operations.
“We will not allow a few to tarnish the sterling reputation of the majority,” Jackley said.
A bill passed in 2025 required disclosure of suspected wrongdoing by state employees and affixed criminal penalties for a failure to do so.
The bill also cleared a path for the Public Integrity Unit, which includes Auditor General Russell Olson, a Division of Criminal Investigation agent and a public integrity prosecutor with Jackley’s office.
Just under half the complaints originated with two agencies, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Corrections, which were responsible for 23% and 21% of the complaints, respectively.
Thirty of the complaints were managed at the administrative level, Jackley said, without criminal sanctions. Two others fell outside the unit’s purview, meaning the alleged behavior fell outside the “statutory requirements” for legal and ethical behavior of state employees or “no reasonable cause was shown.”
Three complaints were unsubstantiated, the report says, and three others were deemed substantiated, but Jackley’s office opted against prosecutions:
- A Department of Labor employee resigned after an investigation found excessive mileage logged in their state vehicle, excessive litter and inaccurate travel logs.
- A Department of Corrections employee kicked closed a cuff port — a small opening in a cell door used to deliver food or medicine to inmates — while an inmate’s hands were still in the port and after the officer had just experienced a “fluid assault,” the report said.
- A Board of Regents employee was found to have used a state vehicle to haul rock from a campus building to their home for personal use; the matter was handled administratively after consultation with legal counsel for the board.
Five of the 14 criminal investigations remain open. The four cases that have drawn criminal charges involve:
- A former social services employee accused of fraud for allegedly falsifying abuse and neglect reports.
- A former correctional officer accused of helping to provide drugs to inmates.
- A former South Dakota State University employee accused of grand theft for allegedly using state dollars and resources to pay veterinary bills.
- A former driver’s license examiner accused of accessing state driver’s license photos, possession of computer-generated pornography and, in one instance, solicitation of rape.
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