Dinelle Hardin, younger sister of Ronald Greene (on LSP Troopers Clary, York): “They should be fired;” voices frustration at disparity between their treatment vis-a-vis Carl Cavalier.

Dinelle Hardin, younger sister of Ronald Greene, who flew in from Orlando, Florida mere hours after learning that the Louisiana State Police Commission would take up the matters of LSP Troopers Kory York and Lt. John Clary (both of whom have been indicted criminally in the LSP in-custody death of Ronald Greene) to express her sentiments regarding their abilities to burn through thousands of hours of accumulated leave as their criminal matters progress in Union Parish.

Today, January 12, 2013 was another meeting of the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), and it was frustrating to watch one Commissioner, Brian Crawford, just flat-out make an inaccurate statement in what he characterized as an effort on his part to, “be clear to the public.”

The primary matter on today’s agenda was a request by LSP to place two troopers, Kory York and Lt. John Clary, on “suspension without pay.”  We knew what that item would boil down to was the troopers’ ability to deplete any remaining administrative leave, followed by their annual leave, followed by their K-time (compensatory time), and their 1.5 K-time (overtime compensatory time).

As the matter was initially taken under consideration, the amount of such time in York and Clary’s payroll account was outlined, and those balances are outlined in the following table:

Trooper Kory YorkLt. John Clary
Annual Leave Balance2,821 hours4,839.83 hours
K-time126.5 hours60 hours
1.5X K-time126 hours56 hours

So we are talking about an enormous ability to burn through leave, no?  In fact, Clary’s annual leave balance represents two (2) years and four (4) months worth of leave.  That’s a long time to be able to draw a check while Clary’s criminal matter plays out in Union Parish.

What was frustrating about Crawford’s statement?  Well, in his extreme lack of knowledge, he indicated that the State of Louisiana would have to pay the troopers in full for their leave balances in the event of any separation of service (retire, termination, etc.).

Unfortunately, Crawford’s ignorance of the fact that, upon separation of service, the amount of hours for which any state employee can be paid entailing annual leave is capped at 300, caused his efforts to, “be clear to the public” to end up making nothing clear beyond his own profound ignorance of the subject matter about which he was speaking!

As a result, LSPC Attorney Lenore Feeney had to have a brief consultation with Chairman Simien and Vice Chairman Crawford to give them a quick crash course in the maximum number of hours any state employee may be paid as it pertains to accumulated annual leave balances.

Why is Crawford’s false portrayal significant?  Simple.  LSP Col. Lamar Davis could (in theory, we know) terminate both Troopers York and Clary.  If he had, each trooper would receive payment for only 300 hours of that annual leave balance.  In Clary’s case, that would result in a whopping 94 percent of his accumulated annual leave essentially evaporating.  In York’s case, the evaporation would approximate 89 percent.

With that backdrop, let’s take a few minutes to view Dinelle Hardin’s  frustration at the whole situation and also watch Vice Chairman Crawford’s ill-advised effort to, “be clear to the public:”

 1/12/13 LSPC Meeting:  Dinelle Hardin voices her frustration at the employment status of Clary and York, after which Chairman Simien explains what’s transpiring, followed by Vice Chairman Brian Crawford’s ill-advised attempt to, “be clear to the public.”

Now, during an Executive Session of the meeting, WBRZ’s Chief Investigative Reporter, Chris Nakamoto, who produced this usual Nakamoto-stellar feature on today’s meeting, interviewed York’s criminal defense attorney, J. Michael Small.  Let’s take a look:


Nakamoto interviews York’s criminal defense attorney, J. Michael Small (CLICK HERE for Nakamoto’s WBRZ feature).

Nakamoto also interviewed Dinelle Hardin during that Executive Session.  Let’s take a look:

 Nakamoto interviews Dinelle Hardin (CLICK HERE for Nakamoto’s WBRZ feature).

Given the speed with which the Greene matter has progressed so far (yes, that’s sarcasm), we think Louisiana taxpayers can now rest assured that they’ll be providing checks for Clary and York for a rather protracted period, but hey, Crawford insists that we can all take comfort from the fact that these won’t be the taxpayer-funded vacations which have provoked the ire of activist Belinda Parker-Brown.

Okay, Mr. Crawford.  If you say so!

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2 thoughts on “Dinelle Hardin, younger sister of Ronald Greene (on LSP Troopers Clary, York): “They should be fired;” voices frustration at disparity between their treatment vis-a-vis Carl Cavalier.”

  1. What is sad in this whole situation is Carl was fired for policy violations that would not have been necessary had the previous colonel and current colonel been worried more about protecting the public than the department.

    At the same time, Shawn Boyd , Robert Burns, the other one, just recently, LT. Clary and others in the State Police have committed crimes and policy violations and have been promoted since. Most still have their job. This is all going on at the same time the state police is posting stories about arresting the lady at the DMV for selling a driver’s license for 50 dollars and pocketing 15. Too bad she didn’t have a state police badge, she might be a regional manager at one of the DMV offices right now.

    The house cannot be cleaned. It needs to be torn down and built back from scratch. Hopefully the next governor or the legislature gets involved to stop this in its track.

    1. Yawn. I’ve never seen people regurgitate the same things over and over and over. Meanwhile, people are getting killed in New Orleans and Baton Rouge by the dozen, yet Tom Aswell and Sound Off are too scared to do real journalism and grill the failures of leadership in those cities.

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