San Francisco Chronicle

Trooper dragged Black man who died in custody

- By Jim Mustian Jim Mustian is an Associated Press writer.

A Louisiana State Police trooper has been suspended without pay for kicking and dragging a handcuffed Black man whose incustody death remains unexplaine­d and the subject of a federal civil rights investigat­ion.

Body camera footage shows Master Trooper Kory York dragging Ronald Greene “on his stomach by the leg shackles” following a violent arrest and highspeed pursuit, according to internal State Police records obtained by the Associated Press.

The records are the first public acknowledg­ment by State Police that Greene was mistreated, and they confirm details provided last year by an attorney for Greene’s family who viewed graphic body camera footage of the May 2019 arrest and likened it the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapoli­s. The video shows troopers choking and beating the man, repeatedly jolting him with stun guns and dragging him facedown across the pavement, the attorney told the Associated Press.

State Police have repeatedly refused to publicly release the body camera footage. The agency has been tight lipped about Greene’s death and initially blamed the man’s fatal injuries on a car crash outside Monroe, La.

York, who turned his own body camera off on his way to the scene, is seen on other bodycam footage yanking Greene’s shackles and repeatedly using profanity toward Greene before he died in custody.

“You’re gonna lay on your f—ing belly like I told you!” the trooper says at one point, according to the police records.

York was suspended without pay for 50 hours following an internal investigat­ion that also led to the terminatio­n of another trooper, Chris Hollingswo­rth, who died in a singlecar crash after learning he had been fired over his role in the incident. The Associated Press last year published a 27second audio clip from Hollingswo­rth’s body camera in which he can be heard telling a colleague, “I beat the everliving f— out of ” Greene before “all of a sudden he just went limp.”

“It is now undisputed that Trooper York participat­ed in the brutal assault that took Ronald Greene’s life,” said Mark Maguire, a Philadelph­ia civil rights attorney who represents Greene’s family. “This suspension is a start but it does not come close to the full transparen­cy and accountabi­lity the family continues to seek.”

Col. Lamar Davis, who took over as State Police superinten­dent last year, wrote York that his suspension had been decided by his predecesso­r, Kevin Reeves, adding he “would have imposed more severe discipline” had it been up to him. Reeves made the decision during his last week in office, before stepping down amid a series of scandals, but York was not notified of the reasons for his suspension until Dec. 29.

York’s attorney did not immediatel­y respond to a message seeking comment.

York told investigat­ors he turned his own bodyworn camera off because it was beeping loudly and that his “mind was on other things” after arriving at the scene.

“I didn’t think about it,” he said.

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