Dinelle Hardin, sister of Ronald Greene, addresses the press in the imediate aftermath of the indictments of four (4) LSP Troopers and one (1) Union Parish Sheriff Deputy pertaining to Greene’s in-custody death on May 10, 2019.
Well, we’ve all learned plenty since Sound Off Louisiana first broke the story on Ronald Greene on September 10, 2020. As everyone is aware by now, indictments pertaining to Greene’s arrest and in-custody death were handed down by a Union Parish Grand Jury on Thursday, December 15, 2022.
Since those indictments are now the first formal criminal charges (and a plethora of folk are hoping they are far from the last) against anyone pertaining to the Greene incident, we believe the best thing to do is republish the video we composed and published on May 24, 2021 after Louisiana State Police (LSP)’s belated spaghetti-against-the-wall release of all of the videos in its possession, which was comprised of nine (9) separate videos. Beneath the video, we will list those who were indicted on Thursday along with their charges. Here’s the video:
Consolidated video of arrest and in-custody death of Ronald Greene. The following four (4) LSP Troopers and one (1) Union Parrish Sheriff Deputy were indicted pertaining to the arrest on Thursday, December 15, 2022 [Note: names appear in the order of body camera footage above — also, we note LSP Trooper Chris Hollingsworth and what transpired entailing him after the Greene matter began being exposed]:
Master Trooper Kory York (still employed with LSP and placed on administrative leave after the indictments): Negligent Homicide and ten (10) Counts of Malfeasance in Office.
Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth (died in one-vehicle head-on crash into guardrail on 9/24/20, two weeks after our initial feature above….Many assert death was a suicide, but Coroner officially ruled it as “accident” on his death certificate).
Trooper Dakota DeMoss (terminated from LSP effective June 4, 2021): One Count of Obstruction of Justice.
LSP Lieutenant John Clary (still employed with LSP and placed on administrative leave after the indictments): One count of Obstruction of Justice and one count of Malfeasance in Office.
Union Parish Sheriff Deputy Christopher Harpin: Three counts of Malfeasance in Office.
LSP Captain John Peters (not appearing in above video and never being on the scene, now retired from LSP): One count of Obstruction of Justice.
At this time, we’d like to present video segments of the press conference held by the friends and family of Ronald Greene soon after the indictments were handed down:
Eugene Collins, Baton Rouge NAACP President begins the press conference.
Greene Family attorney Ron Haley addresses the press.
Ronald Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, addresses the press.
Ronald Greene’s sisters address the press.
State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle (D-Baton Rouge) addresses the press.
State Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) addresses the press.
After Dinelle Hardin, Ronald Greene’s sister, and Eugene Collins, NAACP Baton Rouge President, call for LSP to reinstate fired LSP Trooper Carl Cavalier, Cavalier addresses the press. Subsequently, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns inquires of those in attendance at the press conference whether any political pressure can be exerted to cause LSP to change its stand on essentially cramming $200,000 down Carl Cavalier’s throat as a means to keep him from ever wearing an LSP uniform again.
Regarding the final video above, we want to make it clear what our stand at Sound Off Louisiana is! It’s our belief that it was both inappropriate and inexcusable that the $200,000 offer was ever made in the first place!
Given that stand, we further believe that, if Carl Cavalier prefers to not accept the $200,000 and instead appear before the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) in an attempt to get his job back (knowing that he may not and thus risks the $200,000 if the Commission upholds Col. Davis’ termination of him), then he ought to have that right!
In short, we believe that it’s an insult to the integrity of the taxpayer dollars we pay for this “incentive” (and we’re being very kind in the adjective we use to describe this offer) to be made to Cavalier to forever sever his ties with LSP and his ability to work for the agency.
Having stated our stand on the matter, we are nevertheless compelled to present sentiments which have been communicated to us by troopers whom we believe strongly to be of good character.
What they have told us is that they believe Cavalier merely took the work of three other more-deserving troopers (Scott Davis, Scott Brown, and Albert Paxton) whom they claim are far more responsible for exposing the cover-up, and Cavalier ran with that material in a concerted effort to place the limelight on himself and, further, that his timing was coordinated to dovetail with the promotion of a book he published during that timeframe.
Those troopers have told us that they find the book “offensive.” When we first reported upon the book on June 10, 2021, we drew little attention to it (see itemization # 5 on the preceding link) because, at the time, LSP was not even stating publicly who wrote the book. Although the website to purchase the book is no longer active, here is the cover of the book, which these troopers have said they find offensive:
We will point out that Col. Davis handed down a 200-hour suspension for authoring and publishing the book referenced above. Thus, that incident is not what caused him to lose his job.
The troopers also indicated to us that, when Cavalier distributed numerous emails using the name Toussaint Louverture, while very much of what he communicated was in fact true, that he disparaged the character of four troopers with falsehoods which they claim Cavalier made no effort to substantiate before disseminating the emails to an ungodly number of recipients.
We believe we’ve now been objective in stating the concerns of those troopers who oppose Cavalier being reinstated and their reasons why.
We again reiterate our own position on the matter, however, which is that:
- The $200,000 offer never should have been made in the first place,
- Cavalier should have every right to opt to decline the offer and just let the chips fall where they may in any LSPC hearing.
In concluding this feature, we believe that every Louisiana citizen loses out with the loss of transparency that a hearing entailing Cavalier would have brought about (both pro-Cavalier and anti-Cavalier, since we know Col. Davis would actively and forcefully testify against Cavalier’s reinstatement).
Of course, in dealing with an agency like LSP where transparency is akin to a deadly plague, is anyone really surprised that it wants to cram $200,000 down Cavalier’s throat and thereby deny the opportunity for more light to be shed on this entire incident?
CLICK HERE to see the press conference in its entirety.
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