S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-2-1

This is the official text of S.D. Codified Laws § 23A-2-1, part of South Dakota’s Codified Laws — part of the compiled statutory law of South Dakota, published by the state as "Codified Laws." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Complaint as statement of offense--Signature under oath--Traffic ticket issued by law enforcement officer

Official statutory text

A complaint is a written statement of the essential facts constituting an offense charged. The complaint shall be signed under oath before a person authorized to administer oaths in the State of South Dakota. A law enforcement officer, in lieu of signing a complaint for a misdemeanor or felony under oath, may sign a statement printed or written on a complaint or summons on a uniform traffic ticket stating: "I declare and affirm under the penalties of perjury that this complaint or summons has been examined by me, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, is in all things true and correct." Any person who signs a statement as required by this section, knowing the statement to be false or untrue, in whole or in part, is guilty of perjury.

Source: SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 34.1501; SDCL § 23-19-2; SL 1978, ch 178, § 3; SL 2015, ch 134, § 2; SL 2017, ch 105, § 1.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.