Union Parish District Attorney John Belton, who was a candidate for Attorney General but recently dropped out of the race, came perilously close to being held in Contempt of Court during an Evidentiary Hearing entailing Motions to Quash Indictments and Dismiss Cases With Prejudice entailing all defendants in the Ronald Greene criminal trial heard before Third JDC Judge Thomas Rogers on Friday, June 23, 2023 at 1:30 p.m.
Addendum (June 26, 2023 at 12:30 p.m.). Approximately six hours after our feature, NBC 10 News published this feature entailing the Greene family and friends’ reaction to the court hearing of Friday, June 23, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. Here’s that video:
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns covers an Evidentiary Hearing conducted in Judge Thomas Rogers’ courtroom in Third JCD on Friday, June 23, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. In the hearing, all criminal defendants in the in-custody death of Ronald Greene sought to have their state indictments quashed and for their cases to be dismissed with prejudice. Here’s today’s video:
6/25/23: Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns provides an assessment of the Evidentiary Hearing transpiring in 3rd JDC entailing the criminal defendants in the Ronald Greene matter seeking to have their indictments quashed and for their cases to be dismissed with prejudice.
Click here for the Motion to Quash the York indictments filed by attorneys Mike Small and T. Taylor Townsend. Note: A request for a Kastigar Hearing was also made and was set for 6/23/23 at 1:30 p.m.; however, with prosecuting attorney Hugo Holland indicating that he’d not had time to review the filing and draft any opposition, all parties mutually agreed to defer any such hearing until after Judge Rogers renders his ruling on the Motions to Quash Indictments which were heard on June 23.
As noted on the video, Burns believes the most interesting paragraph in Small/Townsend’s filing is paragraph 16, and we reproduce it at this time:
After Mr. York was interviewed by Senior Trooper Talley, Talley generated and filed an Internal Affairs report pertaining to Mr. York’s participation in the arrest of Ronald Greene. Dated October 20, 2020 and identified as Case# 20-018, it states, on page 2, that MIT Kory York was interviewed. In a section entitled “Investigative Findings” the author of the report notes “The following information [referring to the contents of his report] was obtained from MIT York’s interview, as well as, video footage from Tpr. DeMoss and Lt. Clary’s Body-Worn Cameras.”6 Throughout Talley’s report, statements made by Mr. York during his IA interview were quoted.7
6 A copy of the IA Report pertaining to the “allegation of use of force on the part of Master Trooper Kory York, LSP – Troop F” dated October 20, 2020 and identified as Case # 20-018 is appended hereto, marked Exhibit 6, under seal.
7 On October 28, 2020, Senior Trooper Talley filed a Supplemental Report, “#20- 018 [Supplemental]” in which he outlined the findings of the disciplinary review committee which had considered the allegations against Mr. York. Statements made by Mr. York during the IA interview are not quoted in the Supplemental Report.
As Burns noted, the date of Talley’s report, October 20, 2020, is very, very noteworthy! Why? Because, as indicated in this May 24, 2021 article by AP Reporter Jim Mustian, the allegation is made that LSP Lt. John Clary, “denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month.” We can’t overemphasized just how strongly the allegation against Clary was distributed all over the nation as evidenced by this republishing of the AP Article by the Huffington Post. Just look at the sub-heading! Here’s what it says (in HUGE headline purple letters):
Officer Withheld Video Of Ronald Greene’s Deadly Arrest For Nearly 2 Years
As Burns stated in the video above, “something is amiss,” because there’s simply no way that Clary denied the existence of his body cam video until it “emerged” sometime in April 2021, yet LSP IA Trooper Talley made specific note that his report relied in part on that same body cam video with his report being dated (October 20, 2020) approximately six months prior to the time of it finally “emerging.” As Burns stated, we don’t feel it’s our obligation to speculate on just what is amiss, but something is most definitely amiss!
Entailing Clary’s body cam video, we will reproduce at this time testimony provided by former LSP Lt. Col. and then-Chief of Staff, Doug Cain, regarding Clary’s body cam video. Here’s that video again:
March 22, 2022 testimony by then-LSP Chief of Staff Doug Cain entailing the Clary video.
Finally, as we indicated on the main video above, fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier has indicated an intent to appeal the Order that he adhere to LSP’s settlement agreement. That agreement called for Cavalier to accept $200,000, but it also carried the stipulation that Cavalier could never again serve as an LSP Trooper.
The last point we’ll make is that it sure would be awfully nice if a major media outlet out there, if after consultation with counsel, would be willing to initiate a legal action to unseal Trooper Talley’s Internal Affairs investigation report dated October 20, 2020.
After all, the attorneys argued repeatedly at the evidentiary hearing (particularly Eugene Cicardo, Jr., attorney for Union Parish Deputy Chris Harpin) that, in addition to the defendants having a right to know exactly what they’re charged with, “so too does the public.”
We feel the public has a right to know what’s in that October 20, 2020 Internal Affairs report, especially since we know from the filing of Small/Townsend that it directly contradicts the account provided by a major media outlet (the AP) entailing when Lt. John Clary’s video came, “into existence.”
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