Union Parish District Attorney John Belton.
==========================================
UPDATE (10/24/24 @ 3:47 p.m.): Terms of a plea agreement will be presented and will be entered into formally terminating the York case on Monday, October 28, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. (the date the trial was scheduled to begin). As stated at the bottom of this original feature, we expect those terms of the plea agreement to be, “so lenient that it would be almost tantamount to a dropping of the charges.”
============================================
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns provides his rationale for why he believes that Union Parish District Attorney John Belton appears poised to drop the remaining charges against former LSP Trooper Kory York. Here’s today’s video:
10/23/24: Burns explains why he believes that Union Parish prosecutors are poised to drop the charges against Kory York in the matter of the LSP in-custody death of Ronald Greene (please excuse the intermittent blurriness of the video).
Documents and/or links to support Burns’ contentions made in the video above:
2. Replication of the initial report of lead investigator and then-LSP Sgt. Albert Paxton:
3. Our inquiry of Hugo Holland about availability of prosecution expert witnesses.
4. Returned subpoenas for Ronald Greene prosecution Expert Witnesses.
5. Responses from direct inquiries made to prosecution expert witnesses. Note: Dr. Peretti did not respond to our inquiry of him.
6. York’s Brady Motion (particularly as it relates to any toxicology report in the possession of the Union Parish District Attorney’s Office).
From an email included as an Exhibit in the preceding Brady Motion:
From: Hugo Holland ([email protected])
Date: Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 06:19 AM CDT
Mike. I have been searching for several hours and find no such report. I have requested Whitten jog her memory ….. and will advise.
I have found, however, that the coke content of Greeen’s blood was 1700 Ng/ml directly from the heart and not some ancillary pooling organ. I have also found that the seminal study by Jankins, Levine, Titus and Smialek claims that the mean concentration for cocaine intoxication deaths was 908 ng/ml.
So, as Burns indicates in the video above, he believes that prosecutors in the York matter are indeed poised to drop the charges, but two other possibilities do remain:
A. The trial could possibly be continued even at this late date to try and find a way to somehow overcome these, in our opinion, huge impediments to a successful prosecution (and we believe that would be futile because those impediments aren’t going anywhere), or
B. Negotiate a plea deal. However, as Burns indicates in the waning moments of the above video, we believe that any such plea deal would be so lenient that it would be almost tantamount to a dropping of the charges.
As we have previously reported, the civil trial has been “administratively closed” pending the full and final outcomes of all criminal proceedings. There have literally been no filings in that matter other than these attorney substitutions and enrollments, to include attorney Ben Crump.
So, it has now been 1,504 days since we first broke the Ronald Greene matter.
It truly is amazing all that has happened since that time. In our opinion, however, it would now appear to us that, at least the criminal case as it pertains to Kory York, is essentially done.
If so, it will remain to be seen if a viable case may proceed against the other current defendant, Union Parish Sheriff Deputy Chris Harpin.
While we could certainly be wrong, we do see many of the same impediments applicable for York’s prosecution spilling over to Harpin.
The one major exception, however, is as it pertains to Dr. Stoughton’s Use of Force Report since the alleged Fifth Amendment violation was a defense available exclusive to York.
Only time will tell regarding the definitive resolution to both York and Harpin’s criminal matters but, in our opinion, both appear extremely bleak at this point in time.
This is a travesty of justice. A case where we have clear video evidence that neither York or Clary committed criminal acts yet both were charged. If Burns is correct and these charges end up getting dropped it is not because a witness didn’t come forward or there was a lack of evidence, it is because the charges never should have been filed in the first place. The video evidence is clear and has not changed. The fact the DA waited until the last second before trial to drop the charges is at best gross negligence.
From the first time I saw the video, it never made sense to me why Greene died. The mainstream media wanted us to believe he was beaten to death, but we see more violence during NFL football games. The cocaine level explains a lot. I wonder why it is only now that we find out that Greene had ingested twice the fatal amount of cocaine? Funny how mainstream media never mentioned it. I wonder if they will report it now that Burns has once again laid out the facts for everyone to see.