Hugo Holland disassembles an AR-15 rifle he custom built at his Shreveport home. On Tuesday, July 11, 2023, Holland complied with 3rd JDC Judge Thomas Rogers’ Order to supply Bills of Particulars on Ronald Greene defendants Chris Harpin (a Union Parish Sheriff Deputy) and Louisiana State Police Trooper Kory York. No such Bill of Particulars was filed for Louisiana State Police Lt. John Clary, however, thus making one of his two indictment counts presumably Quashed (Judge Rogers denied the Motion to Quash the other count against Clary). Photo courtesy of Douglas Collier.
Subscribers will recall from our previous feature that 3rd JDC Judge Thomas Rogers, on Monday, July 10, 2023, gave the State of Louisiana three (3) days to file Bills of Particulars for three defendants in the matter of Ronald Greene’s LSP in-custody death on May 10, 2019.
The next day, July 11, 2023, Assistant District Attorney Hugo Holland complied with parts of Rogers’ Order. Holland was retained to assist District Attorney John Belton on the case. He had been adamant that no such Bills of Particulars were required of the State. Nevertheless, he represented at an Evidentiary Hearing on June 23, 2023 that Belton had previously promised to provide the Bills of Particulars, thus prompting him to abandon his fight to avoid providing them.
Here are Holland’s filings: Harpin Bill of Particulars, York Bill of Particulars.
As is obvious, the entirety of the Bills of Particulars’ content is derived solely and exclusively from a use-of-force expert’s report dated November 29, 2022. That report was authored by Seth Stoughton.
We cannot speak for Gene Circardo, Defense Attorney for Harpin, but we feel certain that Mike Small and T. Taylor Townsend, York’s Defense Attorneys, are going to have an absolute field day with this development. Why?
For one thing, Small referred to Stoughton’s report as being prepared by the, “State’s hired gun,” at the Evidentiary Hearing on June 23, 2023. He further stated that, to the extent the report is used to prop up any indictment(s) (it now is officially the sole document buttressing all the indictment counts), his client, Kory York, would “demand” to have Stoughton appear in Court for cross examination about the content of the report, which Small and Townsend both asserted has not even been agreed to as being admissible as evidence at this stage of the case.
This development will also make the upcoming Kastigar Hearing, which has not yet been scheduled after being continued from the June 23, 2023 Evidentiary Hearing due to Holland not having been afforded time to file an Opposition Memorandum, huge. In fact, we’d say it will be the biggest high-stakes hearing of this entire case to date. All of the ten (10) remaining counts against York are at stake.
We have already provided extensive detail on why York has requested a Kastigar hearing, and anyone is welcome to read York’s attorneys’ contentions here, but the bottom line is that they indicate that York’s Fifth Amendment Right against Self-Incrimination (made applicable to State matters via the Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution) have been violated through inclusion of quotes made by York from an Internal Affairs report dated October 20, 2020 which were incorporated into the Stoughton report which, in turn, as evidenced by the Bills of Particulars, were obviously provided to the Grand Jury.
Gee, perhaps that’s why the State was so incredibly steadfast in its efforts to try and avoid providing the specifics of what the batteries were that formed the predicates for the Malfeasance in Office counts! There just may be a little problem entailing a Defendant’s (York’s) Fifth Amendment Right against Self-Incrimination!
We’ll note that only one of the two counts on Harpin is incorporated into his Bill of Particulars above, so the other count is presumably being Quashed. Harpin, at this stage, has two (2) counts still alive since Judge Rogers Denied the Motion to Quash on the third of the original three counts against Harpin.
We’ll also note that Count 11 (against York) which Holland readily admitted he, “cannot fix,” also is obviously Quashed. That means that ten (10) counts remain for York; however, look for Small and Townsend (though Small did all the arguing at the June 23, 2023 Evidentiary Hearing) to unleash an absolute arsenal of firepower on all 10 of those counts at the Kastigar Hearing.
Lastly, there is no Bill of Particulars filed on LSP Lt. John Clary, so one of his two counts is likely Quashed. Judge Rogers Denied the Motion to Quash on his only other count, thus leaving him with one count going forward.
As we previously reported, the counts against former LSP Captain John Peters and former LSP Trooper Dakota DeMoss have already been Quashed, and they have been released from their bond obligations.
So, that’s the update, folks! We’ll monitor the Court calendar for the date of the Kastigar Hearing because it should be extremely interesting, especially given the complete and total reliance upon the Stoughton report to keep these indictment counts alive at least for the time being.
We will mention one last thing as we close. All of the chatter about Belton being the next Federal Judge in the Western District of Louisiana can now apparently be put to rest. From the preceding feature:
The other Louisiana candidate for U.S. District judge in Louisiana, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Edwards Jr., of Shreveport, wasn’t quizzed too heavily by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
At the end of the day, neither Long nor Edwards need the support of conservative Republicans, Tobias said. They have the backing of both Louisiana senators: John Kennedy, R-Madisonville and a member of Senate Judiciary, and Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
Cassidy’s and Kennedy’s support should be enough for the Senate committee to recommend that the two nominees be confirmed by the Democratic majority Senate. The full Senate could take the final confirmation vote after Labor Day and Long and Edwards could be sworn in as federal judges by October, Tobias said.
“We have two additional splendid nominees to offer to you,” Kennedy told his colleagues on Senate Judiciary Wednesday. “Unless they really, really, really screw up today, which I do not think they will, I’m going to vote for them.”
Edwards, 44, would be the first Black trial judge to serve in the 42-parish U.S. Western District of Louisiana, which is divided into five divisions: Alexandria, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe and Shreveport.
After graduating law school at the University of Vermont, he clerked for Judges Scott Crichton and Jeanette Garrett when both were on the state First Judicial District Court in Shreveport.
In 2006, Edwards went to work for Blanchard, Walker, O’Quin & Roberts law firm in Shreveport, where he represented self-insured businesses, particularly Wal-Mart. Edwards joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Shreveport in 2019. He handled civil matters, such as employment disputes and challenges against federal agencies.
His extensive civil law experience was noted and questioned by Sen. Blackburn, who asked if he would be overwhelmed by the criminal cases federal judges also handle.
Our own theory, as we expressed previously, was that Belton never was being seriously vetted for a Federal Judgeship but rather that chatter, from wherever it originated (because it was being bantered about a ton by folk in North Louisiana) was nothing more than a red herring to (at least temporarily) detract attention away from the real reason Belton withdrew from the race for Attorney General, which is that this case is literally imploding upon him right before his very eyes!
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