County commissioner banned from Yankton City Hall for a year

YANKTON, S.D. (AP) – A South Dakota county commissioner has been banned from entering Yankton City Hall for a year.

Yankton County Commissioner Gary Swensen was sent a letter by Yankton’s city attorney outlining the ban.

In the letter, City Attorney Ross Den Herder says Swensen’s recent social media posts are “perceived as threatening to City staff and its elected officials.”

Yankton Mayor Nathan Johnson appeared before the commission last week about Swensen’s posting of a cartoon on social media. The cartoon shows a priest telling a woman who confessed to killing a politician that he is “here to listen to your sins, not your community service work.”

Swensen has apologized for the cartoon. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

AP-WF-08-14-19 1619GMT