‘Where’s Ronald Greene’s Justice?’: 5 Years Later, FBI Still Silent Over Fatal Arrest of Black Motorist

SHREVEPORT, La. – Mona Hardin has been waiting five years for a resolution in the federal investigation into her son’s fatal arrest by Louisiana State Police troopers, a fear only exacerbated by the fact that almost every other major civil rights case in that time has been hers passed by.

It took just months before Tire Nichols’ death last year resulted in federal charges against five Memphis police officers. A half-dozen white lawyers in Mississippi have been federally convicted in the torture of two black suspects last year. And federal prosecutors long ago filed swift charges in the killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

Each of these cases occurred months or years after the death of Ronald Greene in northern Louisiana on May 10, 2019, which sparked national outrage after The Associated Press published a long-suppressed body camera video showing white soldiers gathering on the black motorist before they were tranquilized. , hitting and dragging him as he whimpered, “I’m scared!”

But half a decade after Greene’s violent death, the federal investigation remains open and unresolved with no end in sight. And Hardin says she feels abandoned and forgotten by a Justice Department that won’t even return her calls.

“Where is Ronald Greene’s justice?” asked Hardin, who refuses to bury her son’s cremated remains until she is given some responsibility. “I still have my son in that urn, and that hurts me more than anything. We didn’t grieve the loss of Ronnie because we’ve been in the fight.”

Justice Department spokesperson Aryele Bradford said the investigation was ongoing and declined to provide further details.

Under federal law, no statute of limitations applies to potential civil rights charges in the case because Greene’s arrest was fatal. But prosecutors have been waffling for years about whether to file charges, after initially all but assuring Greene’s family that an extensive FBI investigation would lead to some kind of indictment.

A federal prosecution seemed so imminent in 2022 that a state police supervisor told AP he expected to be charged. The FBI at the time had shifted its focus from the troopers who left Greene handcuffed and face down for more than nine minutes to the state police suspected of obstructing justice by suppressing video evidence, a detective’s recommendation to to arrest a trooper and to put pressure on a prosecutor.

All the while, federal prosecutors asked local district attorney John Belton to wait to file state charges until the federal investigation was complete. They later reversed course, and in late 2022 a state grand jury indicted five officers on charges ranging from negligent homicide to criminal mischief. Only two charges remain, with a trial scheduled for later this year for a senior trooper seen on video dragging Greene face down by his ankle cuffs.

State police initially blamed the 49-year-old’s death on an accident following a high-speed chase due to a traffic violation. An explanation called into question by photos of Greene’s body on a stretcher showing his bruised and battered face. had two stun gun prongs in his back and the fact that his SUV had only minor damage. Even the emergency room doctor questioned the troopers’ initial account of the crash, writing in his notes: “Not right.”

That all changed two years later when AP published graphic body camera video of Greene’s final moments, showing him being swarmed by troopers even as he appeared to raise his hands, beg for mercy and whimper, “Okay, okay.” I’m sorry” and “I’m your brother! I’m afraid! I’m scared!” Troopers repeatedly shocked Greene with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face. Another called him a ​​’stupid mother.’ They then ordered a shackled Greene to remain face down on the ground, even though he struggled to stay on his side.

A re-examined autopsy ordered by the FBI ultimately debunked the crash story, citing “sensitive restraint” among other factors contributing to Greene’s death, including neck compression, physical struggle and cocaine use.

Greene’s family members weren’t the only ones stunned by the pace of the federal investigation. Then-Government. John Bel Edwards expressed personal frustration over the lack of answers during a closed-door meeting with state lawmakers, saying that from the first time he saw the video in late 2020, he believed Greene’s treatment was criminal and racist.

“Will they ever come out and press charges?” the Democratic governor asked amid AP reporting that he had been notified within hours of Greene’s death that troops were engaged in a “violent, prolonged battle.”

Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said the “failure to pursue federal prosecution in this case would undermine public confidence in the federal government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law.”

Perhaps the most significant hurdle to federal charges was the untimely death of Chris Hollingsworth, the soldier seen on video repeatedly hitting Greene in the head with a flashlight and later recorded by his own body camera as he hit a fellow soldier officer called and said, “I beat the living motherfucker out of him.” Hollingsworth died in a high-speed single-vehicle crash in 2020, hours after he was told he would be fired for his actions in Greene’s death.

Another key sticking point was whether prosecutors could prove that the troopers acted “intentionally” in abusing Greene — a key part of the civil rights charge that has complicated such prosecutions across the country. The FBI even enhanced video of the arrest in an ultimately inconclusive effort to determine whether he was pepper-sprayed after being in custody, focusing on a conversation in which a deputy mockingly said, “S— hurts , doesn’t hurt.’ It?”

The Justice Department also conducted an in-depth investigation into the Louisiana State Police’s use of force and whether it engaged in “racially discriminatory policing.” The department began that “pattern-of-practice” investigation nearly two years ago after an AP investigation found that Greene’s arrest was one of at least a dozen cases in which troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of abuse, deflected blame and hindered efforts to root out misconduct.

Also pending is the federal wrongful death lawsuit that Greene’s family filed four years ago seeking damages from the officers, who have denied wrongdoing. The civil case has been stayed while the criminal proceedings play out.

Hardin said it is long past time for the state of Louisiana to make amends.

“It started with a lie: we were told Ronnie died in a car accident,” she said. “That was wrong, and it needs to be addressed. I will go to my grave knowing that I did everything I could to get justice for Ronnie.”

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