‘Fair' state's attorney to decide on charges

| Thursday, August 21, 2003

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Like Rep. Janklow, Ellingson is a Moody County native.

SIOUX FALLS (AP) — William Ellingson has a tough, lonely job, his peers say.

Ellingson, the Moody County state's attorney, will decide whether to bring criminal charges against Bill Janklow, a U.S. congressman and Moody County native.

Ellingson declined to be interviewed, but colleagues say he is meticulous and fair.

"I think of him as pretty methodical. I don't think of him as an emotional person, somebody who jumps up and down and makes charging decisions based on emotion," Dick Casey, a Sioux Falls lawyer who knows Ellingson, said.

Janklow's car and a motorcycle collided near Trent on Saturday, killing the motorcycle driver, Randolph Scott, 55, of Hardwick, Minn.

In a release Tuesday, Ellingson said Janklow apparently did not stop at a stop sign.

Casey said, "I don't envy him. These are tough deals. This case would be tough enough in any county in South Dakota, much less the congressman's home county."

Ellingson has been state's attorney for three years.

Casey said, "Being a prosecutor can be a very lonely job."

It's also a big job.

"As a prosecutor, you are standing up representing the state, whatever the heck that is. It is a very broad spectrum you represent. It includes the victim but is not limited to the victim. It includes law enforcement, but is certainly not limited to that," Casey said.

"You take into account the public good. You take into account the aspect of deterrence — ‘should I be tough in this case so we don't have to worry as much about this behavior recurring?'

"It is a lonely job, a lonely process. At the end of the day, the prosecutor has really more power than the judge."

Ellingson is fair, objective and conscientious, Ken James, Flandreau police chief, said.

Robert Hayes, a Sioux Falls lawyer who went to law school with Ellingson at the University of South Dakota in the early 1970s, said Ellingson is serious, hardworking and levelheaded. "Even then (in law school) he devoted whatever time it took to get something done," Hayes said.

Ellingson, who got his law degree in 1974, was appointed state's attorney by the Moody County Commission and was unopposed for election in 2002.

He was a Republican at the time but has since become a Democrat, county records show.