3 years on, Ronald Greene’s family still waiting for justice

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. Body camera footage of white troopers stunning, punching and dragging the Black motorist remained so secret it was even withheld from his initial autopsy.

The story state police stubbornly pushed for months about Greene’s death didn’t hold up, unraveled by graphic footage, published last year by The Associated Press, that contradicted police reports and fueled claims of a cover-up.

Now, even as Greene’s May 10, 2019, death has engulfed Louisiana’s premier law enforcement agency in controversy, it remains an open wound for a grieving family still seeking justice. Despite long-running state and federal criminal investigations, no charges have been filed in the case.

“How do you turn your back on a killing?” Mona Hardin, Greene’s mother, said in an emotional interview Tuesday. “It’s an ugly, lurking evil.”

For months, particularly after AP published the body- camera video last spring, the question had not been whether the Justice Department would file charges but how many troopers would be indicted. The scope of the investigation expanded to include whether state police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers.

But after months of interviews, grand jury testimony and a recommissioned autopsy, federal prosecutors are increasingly skeptical they can bring a successful civil rights case against any of the troopers caught on camera abusing Greene, according to people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing case.

A key sticking point has been whether federal authorities can prove troopers acted “willfully” — a key component of the federal civil rights charges authorities are considering. To do that, the sources said, investigators were trying to show that Greene was also pepper- sprayed after he was already in custody.

Even after the FBI enhanced the body-camera video, however, federal authorities have questioned whether the footage proves Greene was pepper-sprayed.

LOUISIANA STATE POLICE VIA AP This image from the body camera video of Louisiana State Police Trooper Dakota DeMoss shows his colleagues, Kory York (center left) and Chris Hollingsworth (center right) holding up Ronald Greene before paramedics arrived in 2019, outside of Monroe, La.