Louisiana police to pay $4.85m to daughter of Black motorist who died at officers’ hands in 2019 | US policing
Louisiana state police and the local sheriff’s office have agreed to pay $4.85 million to the daughter of Ronald Greene, the black driver who was fatally shocked with a stun gun, punched and dragged during a 2019 arrest.
The settlement agreement was reached during mediation, which concluded Tuesday evening, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks. This is one of the most important legal consequences of a death that would normally result in misdemeanor convictions for the two police officers involved.
Neither spokespeople for Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry nor state attorney general Liz Murrill could immediately be reached for comment. An attorney for Greene’s daughter, Tayla, could not immediately be reached.
Body-worn camera footage of Greene’s death outside the Louisiana community of Monroe, withheld for two years but released by the Associated Press in 2021, shows Greene raising his hands, begging for mercy and yelling, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”
Troopers shocked Greene multiple times with a stun gun before he got out of the car on May 10, 2019.
One tackled him to the ground, choked him and punched him in the face, while another insulted him, calling him a “stupid son of a bitch”. Troopers then ordered the handcuffed Greene to lie face down on the ground, which experts said may have dangerously restricted his breathing.
State police initially blamed the death of Greene, 49, on a crash resulting from a high-speed chase for a traffic violation. However, this explanation disappeared when photographs emerged showing Greene’s body on a stretcher, with his bruised and battered face. There was also a hospital report stating that a pair of stun gun tips were found in his back and that there was only minor damage to his sport utility vehicle.
Moreover, an emergency room doctor who examined Greene questioned the troopers’ claims of an accident, writing in his notes: “Not appropriate.”
Federal prosecutors ultimately did not pursue charges. In late 2022, a state grand jury indicted four officers at the time of Greene’s death — Dakota DeMoss, Kory York, John Clary and Gage Hollingsworth — and then deputy Chris Harpin of the Monroe county sheriff’s office in Union Parish, Louisiana, on charges ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance.
That case eventually resulted in misdemeanor charges against York and Harpin, who joined the troopers at the scene of Greene’s fatal arrest. Each made no objection.
Hollingsworth died in a high-speed, single-car crash in 2020 after being told he would be fired for his role in Greene’s death, the AP previously reported.
All five police officers charged in Greene’s death were white.
Tuesday’s mediation agreement was in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by Tayla Greene, claiming her father’s death was wrongful. The settlement agreement focused on claims against DeMoss, York, Clary, Hollingsworth and Harpin.
The U.S. justice department launched a broader civil rights investigation after the AP reported that Greene’s arrest was one of at least a dozen cases in which state police officers and supervisors ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and obstructed efforts to root out abuses within their agencies. As the AP noted, that investigation determined that state troopers used excessive force. reported.
Greene’s death occurred nearly a year before a white Minneapolis police officer killed Black resident George Floyd — video of which was captured on a bystander’s cellphone — sparking racial justice protests in streets around the world. The AP obtained and released police body-worn camera footage of police brutality against Greene nearly a year after Floyd’s killing.
