Louisiana state police and a sheriff's office agreed Tuesday to pay $4.85 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the daughter of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who died during a violent 2019 arrest captured on body camera footage that revealed troopers shocking him repeatedly with stun guns, punching him and dragging him across pavement.
The settlement came through mediation and resolves the civil case brought by Tayla Greene. State police initially blamed her father's death on injuries sustained during a high-speed chase over a traffic violation, a narrative that crumbled within weeks of his death.
Body camera video, withheld for two years and released by the Associated Press in 2021, showed troopers swarming Greene as he raised his hands and pleaded for mercy. "I'm your brother! I'm scared! I'm scared!" he wailed from inside his vehicle. Troopers shocked him multiple times before he exited the car, then one officer placed him in a chokehold and punched him repeatedly in the face while another officer insulted him. After shackling Greene, officers forced his face down on the ground in a position experts said may have critically restricted his breathing.
Greene's body told a different story than police accounts. Photos of the 49-year-old on a hospital gurney showed severe bruising and lacerations across his face. Medical records documented two stun gun prongs embedded in his back. His SUV had only minor damage. An emergency room doctor examining Greene wrote in his notes: "Does not add up."
Federal prosecutors declined to bring charges, but in late 2022 a state grand jury indicted four state troopers at the scene and a deputy from Union Parish sheriff's office. The men faced charges ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance. The case later narrowed to misdemeanor battery charges against just trooper Kory York and deputy Chris Harpin, who both pleaded no contest. The other three indicted officers avoided conviction.
One of the indicted troopers, Gage Hollingsworth, died in a single-car crash in 2020, hours after being informed he would be terminated over his role in Greene's death. All five officers charged in connection with the arrest were white.
Greene's death became part of a larger pattern. After the AP reported that state police troopers had ignored or concealed evidence of beatings in at least a dozen other cases, deflected blame and blocked misconduct investigations, the U.S. Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the agency. Investigators determined state police troopers had engaged in a pattern of using excessive force.
Author James Rodriguez: "This settlement puts a price tag on a failure that went far beyond one arrest, exposing systematic neglect at the highest levels of a police agency."
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