FIVE INDICTED ON PRISON CONTRABAND CHARGES

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Attorney General Marty Jackley says five people, including one former state correctional officer and two current inmates, have been indicted for transporting contraband into the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

“Transporting illegal items into the prison makes the facility less safe for staff and inmates,” said Attorney General Jackley. “We will not tolerate such activity and thank you to the Department of Corrections for its cooperation with the investigation.”

The five people indicted were:

*** Carson DeYoung, 22, Sioux Falls, former South Dakota Department of Corrections correctional officer.

*** Max Bolden, 42, and Simba Oma Maat, 25, both current South Dakota Penitentiary inmates

*** Nancy Sage, 52, Sioux Falls, and Chandler Boone (female), 31, Denver, CO.

All five were indicted on:

*** One felony count of Conspiracy to Distribute A Controlled Substance, Methamphetamine.  Maximum sentence is 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. For inmates Bolden and Maat, the maximum sentence would be doubled.

*** One felony count of Conspiracy to Commit Distribution of a Synthetic Cannabinoids, K2, which is intended to mimic THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana. The maximum sentence is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. For inmates Bolden and Maat, the maximum sentence would be doubled.

*** One felony count of Conspiracy to Deliver Authorized Article, a Cell Phone, to an Inmate. The maximum sentence is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. For inmates Bolden and Maat, the maximum sentence would be doubled.

*** One misdemeanor count of Conspiracy to Deliver Unauthorized Article, a vape pen, to an Inmate. Maximum is one year in jail and a $2,000 fine. For inmates Bolden and Maat, the maximum sentence would be doubled.

DeYoung also was charged with one felony count of Possession of Unauthorized Article, an anabolic steroid, With Intent to Deliver to an Inmate; and one felony count of Possession of Controlled Substance, an anabolic steroid, with Intent to Distribute. The Possession of an Unauthorized Article carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The one felony count of Possession with Intent to Distribute carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Sage also was charged with one felony count of possession of a Controlled Substance, Methamphetamine, and one felony count of Possession of a Controlled Substance, Synthetic Cannabinoids. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Attorney General Jackley said Chandler Boone procured the items and mailed them to Nancy Sage in Sioux Falls. DeYoung had not yet transported these particular items into the pen but had agreed to do so. There is an ongoing investigation as to what other items DeYoung may have transported into the pen.

Bolden is serving a life sentence for murder. Maat is serving sentences for First Degree Burglary and Second Degree Burglary. His scheduled release date is 2028.

South Dakota’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) investigated and was assisted by the Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General and the Sioux Falls Area Drug Task Force, which included detectives from the Sioux Falls Police Department and the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office. The Attorney General’s Office will prosecute.

All five defendants were indicted Wednesday, Sept. 17, by a Minnehaha County Grand Jury.

 

NEW STATE PUBLIC DEFENCE OFFICE HAS TAKEN ON 43 CASES SO FAR

PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota’s first state public defender and his staff of four have taken on 43 cases since taking their first this winter.

Lawmakers created and funded the Office of Indigent Legal Services in 2024 to address the ballooning cost of lawyers for people who have a constitutional right to one but can’t afford it.

The state convened a task force to address that issue in 2023, spurred in part by the doubling of county-paid public defense bills in the space of 10 years.

As of two years ago, South Dakota was one of only two states in the U.S. to collar counties with the full cost of indigent defense. A state-level office, the task force concluded, could begin to relieve some of that pressure.

The resulting Office of Indigent Legal Services doesn’t represent clients at trial — counties still pay area lawyers for that — but instead handles appeals of felony convictions and rulings against parents and guardians in abuse and neglect cases.

Lawmakers put $1.4 million in the office’s budget for the current fiscal year, which began in July. The office was expected to save counties $2.1 million overall and bring a net savings of $600,000 to taxpayers.

Leader hired in 2024

Christopher Miles was hired to head up the office. He’s since welcomed three additional attorneys and a paralegal, and is on the hunt for one more attorney.

The office took on its first cases in February, when the doors opened for appeals from the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas. In July, it began to take appeals from the rest of the state.

The state office’s team is now working on appeals from Roberts, Hughes and Lawrence counties, on top of its caseload from the metro areas.

Miles and the other three lawyers each have about 10 cases to handle. Thirteen of them involve abuse and neglect. The rest involve felony convictions.

“We’re probably picking up a case every week,” Miles said.

The team has an office in Sioux Falls and one team member in Rapid City.

The only appellate court in South Dakota’s court system is the state Supreme Court. None of the appeals handled by the office have reached the Supreme Court for oral arguments, and the high court has yet to rule for or against the state’s public defenders in cases where they presented arguments on a client’s behalf.

Three cases have been resolved. Two defendants dropped their appeals after consultations with the public defense office. In the third case, the office found no appealable issues and told the state’s high court as much, but the client exercised their right to file their own appeal statement. The Supreme Court dismissed the client’s case by summary judgment, a short statement that doesn’t address specific legal issues.

“We don’t have any wins yet, but we don’t have a lot of cases that have made it through to the point where we’d be expecting an opinion, either,” Miles said.

Scope of work

An appeal doesn’t involve new evidence or new witnesses.

Rather, it involves scouring the existing trial court record to find some error, such as ineffective assistance from a trial court lawyer, erroneous rulings from a judge or a sentence that falls into the unconstitutional category of cruel and unusual.

If there’s an issue for his office to address, Miles said, it’s got to be present within the four corners of the case record, which would include transcripts from hearings or a trial. A win at the state Supreme Court could reopen parts of a case.

Inmates will contact the office at times with hopes of adding new evidence, Miles said, but “we do our best to explain what the restrictions are.”

Future goals

Minnehaha County Public Defender Traci Smith has been pleased so far.

Miles was once part of Smith’s staff of 45 lawyers, paralegals and others, and appeals were his only job.

“Now, we don’t have to have an attorney assigned to appeals,” Smith said.

Smith was a task force member, and manages one of three county-level public defenders’ offices in the state. Her hope is that the state office serves as a stepping stone to address other issues surrounding indigent defense in South Dakota, as outlined in a report on the issue from the Sixth Amendment Center.

Among those challenges were a dearth of experienced criminal defense attorneys in rural areas, and funding for high-profile cases in low-budget counties.

“There are a lot of priorities, but the real progress will come by focusing on a few key goals at a time and building momentum step by step,” Smith said.

 

SUPPROT FOR SD BIOMEDICAL STUDENTS FALL VICTIM TO TRUMP DIVERSITY CUTS UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT

VERMILLION, S.D. – A program supporting rural and first-generation college students pursuing graduate degrees in biomedical research at the University of South Dakota is among the victims of Trump administration grant cancellations upheld recently by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court ruled last month that $783 million in nationwide research grants related to health disparities, LGBTQ+ health and vaccines could be terminated by the National Institutes of Health. The Trump administration canceled the grants as part of a crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion-related studies.

The federal government awarded USD $1.1 million over the last five years to start a Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement, or G-RISE, program. The university had spent all but $174,661 of the money when the grant was terminated.

University officials had hoped to get a “no-cost extension” to spend the remaining funds for a year beyond the grant deadline, said USD spokesperson Alissa Matt.

The program focused on recruiting and retaining underrepresented students to pursue graduate degrees through the USD Division of Biomedical and Translational Science, Matt added. Associate Professor Lisa McFadden said the program looked for students “eager” to become researchers and enrolled applicants based on academic performance, research potential and commitment to the field.

Several other universities throughout the country have G-RISE programs.

“We were also excited about the chance to use this funding to support first-generation and rural students — two of the groups NIH identified as underrepresented in its initial request for proposals,” Matt said in an emailed statement.

Since 2020, the program financially supported 11 graduate students with stipends. Most of the program’s professional development, mentoring and research activities were open to all USD graduate students.

McFadden said in an emailed statement that students in the program are resilient, creative and determined, “often coming from rural communities where resources are limited, yet proving they can thrive in biomedical research.”

“Their success reflects the values of South Dakota: resilience, resourcefulness, and the ability to do more with fewer NIH resources,” McFadden said.

The program was a “strong fit” for USD, Matt said, because it connected students with meaningful training experiences and improved student outcomes. That included increasing the number of fellowships Biomedical and Translational Science graduates received and an increase in publications per student. The program improved retention, with 100% of G-RISE fellows completing the program, and decreased the time it took an average student to graduate.

The university wants to continue the program, so officials are “exploring other grant programs” to support graduate students, Matt said, including applying for other National Institutes of Health grants.

Programs like G-RISE and other projects committed to supporting South Dakota students, McFadden said, “can help South Dakota retain and grow the biomedical workforce our state needs.”