Spotlighting government scandal: A year of public corruption in South Dakota

Cases, stories involving public officials, state employees theme 2024

A year of headlines about public corruption, state employee scandals, nepotism and abuse of power put a spotlight on the value of investigative journalism.

And The Dakota Scout is proud to have been a part of it.

Of the thousands of stories published by The Scout in 2024, dives into government malfeasance, waste and white collar crime were the year’s theme that not only sparked countless dinner table conversations, but also calls for taxpayer protection reforms. 

The firing and subsequent death of a former cabinet secretary brought shock to South Dakota politicos and watchers alike. But the January report by The Scout was just the start of a year bookended with government corruption and scandal — dozens of headlines and breaking news stories about malfeasance, fraud and embezzlement involving governments across the state.

The death of Andy Gerlach, who’d been forced to resign as the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration (BHRA) deputy commissioner for punitively blocking contacts from a third party vendor, was the first in a flurry of scandals and public corruption cases involving former state employees. 

In July, after an exhaustive investigation by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Attorney General Marty Jackley brought charges against former Department of Social Services (DSS) employee Lonna Carroll for allegedly stealing nearly $2 million from the state’s foster care program. In the days that followed, The Scout told readers that Carroll’s associates and coworkers described her as a hoarder who engaged in unhealthy shopping habits, believed to have been a motivation for the crimes that authorities say she committed.

RELATED: Scandal flurry spotlights auditor impotence

DSS wasn’t the only state agency that had caught the attention of state investigators and reporters at The Scout. In August, The Scout concluded a months-long investigation of its own with a report that another former state employee — this time in the Department of Revenue — had abused her job for her own financial gain. 

Although Sandy O’Day had retired from state government in October 2023, and had since died, the Pierre woman had been the subject of an official law enforcement investigation after she forged vehicle titles in her elderly mother’s name to secure bank loans. 

The Scout’s reporting confirmed that Jackley had been prepared to bring charges against O’Day, but the longtime Motor Vehicles Division manager passed away from cancer in 2023. But that investigation would not have been brought to the attention of the public but for The Scout’s reporting.

At least two of O’Day’s former coworkers were also implicated in the scam, according to more groundbreaking reporting by The Scout. And earlier this month, a Department of Health employee was indicted for allegedly falsifying health inspection records.

County and city level governments also grabbed unfavorable headlines this year.

Brown County Sheriff Dave Lunzman has been under scrutiny by the County Commission following a series of stories by The Scout spotlighting the Hub City lawman for his handling of county personnel, intergovernmental cooperation and nepotism. The Scout first reported a rift between Lunzman and the Aberdeen Police Department when the agency stopped using the county sheriff’s office for DUI processing, an issue still pitting the two departments against each other. That the veteran lawman had given his wife a stay-at-home job as a jail detention officer also earned ink in The Scout in 2024.

In Watertown, the City Council, the mayor and city attorney ducked questions after conducting an hours-long meeting in secret and casting votes outside of the public’s view. 

During a nearly three hour executive session, the Watertown City Council decided to terminate the city’s city manager in December, a violation of South Dakota open meeting statute first exposed by The Scout. Similar violations prompted the Attorney General’s office to reinstate the Open Meetings Commission this year, tasked with reprimanding local governments for disobeying open meetings laws.

All those missteps by public officials have brought a chorus of calls for change from citizens and politicians alike. Gov. Kristi Noem this fall signed an executive order mandating state employees undergo ethics and code of conduct training annually, Jackley has vowed to work with lawmakers to create a whistleblower law that does more to require state workers report wrongdoing and South Dakota Auditor Rich Sattgast has unveiled plans to overhaul the auditor’s office manual and apply more scrutiny to state finances.

RELATED: Department of Revenue fraudster strikes plea deal, avoids prison time

The Scout also broke a story this year that made international news headlines. That’s when a review of Gov. Kristi Noem’s book No Going Back found two anecdotes about meeting world leaders that were determined to be misleading or entirely false. Scrutiny over Noem’s book and expenses paid during its promotion led The Scout to file a lawsuit against the State Auditor’s office after Sattgast refused to release financial spending records associated with the governor’s state-issued credit cards. That lawsuit is pending.