High Court suspends lawyer for ignoring court instructions during sexual assault trials in Lincoln County

Ronald Frauenshuh won his case but got himself in hot water along the way

A Watertown attorney who violated judicial orders on his way to winning an acquittal in a child sexual assault case has been suspended from practicing law in South Dakota for a month.

The 30-day suspension handed down by the South Dakota Supreme Court Thursday to Ronald Frauenshuh reduces the severity of recommended punishment coming from the South Dakota State Bar but upholds its findings that the veteran trial lawyer’s willful disregard for court instructions led to a mistrial in 2020.

A second trial where similar infractions occurred ended with Frauenshuh’s client being being found not guilty of sexual contact with a child under sixteen and attempted sexual contact with a child under sixteen, though court records show prosecutors opted not to push for another mistrial to minimize further victim trauma.

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