February 28, 2021
Louisiana State Trooper Suspended Without Pay After Investigation Into The Death Of Ronald Greene
A Louisiana State Trooper was temporarily relieved of his duties without pay for violently assaulting a handcuffed Black man who died inexplicably while in police custody.
According to the Associated Press (AP), Master Trooper Kory York was caught on camera dragging Ronald Greene “on his stomach by the leg shackles” after he violently detained Greene following a high-speed chase. The incident is now under investigation by the Department of Justice, the news outlet reported.
AP also obtained documents indicating that the Louisiana State Police publicly acknowledged York’s unacceptable behavior. The attorney for Greene’s family previously had given details of the abusive May 2019 arrest, likening the video footage to George Floyd’s murder.
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The publication reported that video footage revealed officers brutally beating, choking, shocking Greene with tasers and dragging the 49-year-old man on the cement while he was facedown.
The police have not publicly released the bodycam video to the public.
Initially, the Louisiana State Police claimed Greene sustained fatal injuries in a car crash near Monroe, La.
York, reportedly, turned off his bodycam while en route to the scene but was caught on another bodycam cursing Greene and physically abusing him before he died.
“You’re gonna lay on your f*****g belly like I told you,” York screamed in the video, according to AP.
The officer has been suspended without pay for a little over a week’s earnings after an internal investigation was conducted. That inquiry led to former state trooper Chris Hollingsworth being terminated from the force.
According to AP, Hollingsworth was heard on an audio clip telling a fellow state trooper, “I beat the ever-living f*** out of Greene before he all of a sudden he just went limp.”
The disgraced trooper died in a single-car crash a week after being fired in October last year, AP reported.
Greene’s family attorney, Mark Maguire, a civil rights attorney based in Philadelphia, weighed in on the lenient suspension.
“It is now undisputed that Trooper York participated in the brutal assault that took Ronald Greene’s life,” he said to AP. “This suspension is a start, but it does not come close to the full transparency and accountability the family continues to seek.”
The Louisiana State Police has a new superintendent who informed York that the punishment wasn’t harsh enough.
Col. Lamar Davis told the defrocked state trooper, he “would have imposed more severe discipline” if it were his decision.
Davis replaced Kevin Reeves, who stepped down from the high-ranking position amid numerous scandals in the department.