Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said there was “no excuse” for a video he watched of the deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene failing to reach prosecutors for another six months. But he maintained he couldn't have known at the time that the footage had not already been turned over.
Gov. John Bel Edwards agreed on Wednesday to a request from Louisiana lawmakers that he and his top attorneys testify before a bipartisan committee investigating allegations of a cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — With racial tensions still simmering over the killing of George Floyd, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and his top lawyers gathered in a state police conference room in October 2020 to prepare for the fallout from a troubling case closer to home: troopers’ deadly arrest of Ronald Greene.
WINNSBORO, La. (AP) — State prosecutors have charged three Louisiana State Police troopers accused of beating a Black motorist, hoisting him to his feet by his hair braids and bragging in text messages that the “whoopin'” would give him “nightmares for a long time.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lawmakers investigating the deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene voted unanimously Wednesday to hold the former head of the Louisiana State Police in contempt for defying a subpoena and refusing to turn over the handwritten journals he kept while leading the state's premier law enforcement agency.
MONROE, La. (AP) — Three years ago, when a beaten and bloody Ronald Greene drew his final breath on a rural roadside, his death in Louisiana State Police custody seemed destined for obscurity.
Family members were told — falsely — that he died in a car crash after a high-speed chase.
Within days of the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, when body-camera video captured white troopers stunning, beating and dragging the Black motorist, the head of the Louisiana State Police wrote a stark note about the case in his journal: “Realize there is a problem — must address immediately.”
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawmakers investigating the deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene are preparing to hold the former head of the Louisiana State Police in contempt for refusing to turn over his journals after talks broke down Monday in a dispute over an entry mentioning police brutality and Gov.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Under increasing pressure from lawmakers, the head of the Louisiana State Police put his second-in-command on leave Friday while he faces an internal probe into the erasing of his cellphone data amid the investigation into the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — No longer waiting for a federal investigation that has so far taken two and a half years, a state prosecutor said Thursday that he intends to pursue his own possible charges against the Louisiana troopers involved in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Days before his own death, Louisiana Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth walked into a secure room deep inside state police headquarters, swore an oath and told investigators about the night he held down Black motorist Ronald Greene and repeatedly bashed him in the head with a flashlight.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana State Police investigators who pressed within days to charge troopers in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene told lawmakers Tuesday that commanders rejected their concerns and told them to suppress graphic video of the Black motorist's final moments that the agency’s own expert described as "torture and murder.”
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards trusted Louisiana State Police to “do the right thing” and took a hands-off approach in police matters, even after Black motorist Ronald Greene died in a violent confrontation with troopers following a high-speed chase, the former head of the agency told state lawmakers Tuesday.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The former head of the Louisiana State Police has agreed to appear before the legislative committee investigating the fatal arrest of Ronald Greene — an in-custody death one lawmaker described Tuesday as “a modern-day lynching.”
Declaring “no cover-up will be tolerated,” Louisiana’s House speaker announced a bipartisan legislative investigation Thursday into the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene, an inquiry that will examine the state's response at “all levels," from troopers to the governor.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards defiantly denied Tuesday that he delayed or interfered with investigations into the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene — and for the first time he characterized the actions of the troopers seen on video stunning, punching and dragging the Black man as racist.
Louisiana’s top GOP lawmaker weighed taking legislative action Monday against Gov. John Bel Edwards for “gross misconduct and the highest level of deceit” in his response to the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat in a deep-red state, was immersed in a difficult reelection campaign when he received a text message from the head of the state police: Troopers had engaged in “a violent, lengthy struggle” with a Black motorist, ending with the man’s death.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Mona Hardin has cherished her son’s cremated remains since the day they arrived at her doorstep in a FedEx box. She pulls them into bed with her when she’s too bereft to get up and talks to her “Ronnie” every day to keep him apprised of her journey for justice.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Ronald Greene’s mother chastised Louisiana lawmakers Monday for not acting quickly enough to hold state troopers accountable for her son's deadly 2019 arrest, saying the Black motorist’s death at the end of a high-speed chase was a “murder” that's been covered up, sugarcoated and mired in bureaucracy.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A reexamined autopsy ordered by the FBI in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene has rejected the Louisiana State Police claim that a car crash caused his fatal injuries, narrowing prosecutors’ focus on the troopers seen on body camera video beating, stunning and dragging the Black motorist.
MONROE, La. (AP) — Growing up in the piney backwoods of northern Louisiana, where yards were dotted with crosses and the occasional Confederate flag, Jacob Brown was raised on hunting, fishing and dreams of becoming a state trooper.
MONROE, La. (AP) — Growing up in the piney backwoods of northern Louisiana, where yards were dotted with crosses and the occasional Confederate flag, Jacob Brown was raised on hunting, fishing and dreams of becoming a state trooper.
MONROE, La. (AP) — A former Louisiana State Police trooper pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a federal charge in the 2019 video recorded beating of a man whose injuries included a broken jaw and broken ribs.
A former Louisiana State Police trooper has been charged with a civil rights violation for pummeling a Black motorist 18 times with a flashlight — the first criminal case to emerge from federal investigations into troopers' beatings of at least three Black men.
MONROE, La. (AP) — In one long-buried video, white Louisiana State Police troopers can be seen slamming a Black man against a police cruiser after finding marijuana in his car, throwing him to the ground and repeatedly punching him — all while he is handcuffed.
MONROE, La. (AP) — The most violent videos languished for years, lost or ignored in a digital vault. Louisiana State Police troopers and top brass alike would often look the other way, even as officers took to official messaging channels to banter about their brutality.
MONROE, La. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Louisiana State Police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers seen on long-withheld body camera video punching, dragging and stunning Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest.
The FBI is taking the unusual step of ordering a new look at the autopsy of Black motorist Ronald Greene to consider evidence not provided after his 2019 death, including graphic body camera video of Louisiana state troopers stunning, punching and dragging him after a high-speed chase.
MONROE, La. (AP) — More than a year and a half after Louisiana state troopers were captured on body camera video brutalizing Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal arrest, police brass were still trying to blame his death on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The same Louisiana State Police unit whose troopers stunned, punched and dragged Ronald Greene on video during a deadly 2019 arrest is now under internal investigation by a secret panel over whether its officers are systematically targeting Black motorists for abuse.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana State Police troopers involved in the violent arrest of a Black motorist who died in police custody in 2019 should be immediately fired and charged with crimes, leaders of the National Urban League and other civil rights groups said Thursday.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday denounced the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene as “regrettable," criticizing the state troopers who repeatedly stunned, choked and punched the Black motorist, and also chiding officers who stood by but failed to intervene.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators that the Black man was still a threat to flee after he was shackled, and he denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month.