Ronald Greene’s mother chastises LSP Col. Davis’ continued employment of troopers York, Clary while Davis also shields from public view cheating scandal texts between troopers Small, Thomas.

Ms. Mona Hardin, mother of Ronald Greene, who died at the hands of Louisiana State Police Troopers on May 10, 2019, voices frustration on Monday, November 14, 2022 at a meeting of the Special Committee of the Louisiana House formed to delve into that in-custody death.  Her frustrations centered on statements made prior to her testimony by LSP Col. Lamar Davis and also what she asserts is the false claim by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards that she and her family were shown the “Clary video” when Hardin has consistently contended that she and her family were shown mere “snippets” of the videos from that night despite her daughter’s pleas for them to see “the whole video.”

When we published this July 5, 2022 feature on the widespread LSP Cadet cheating scandal spanning several consecutive Cadet classes, we committed to our subscribers and casual site visitors to follow up.  Trust us, we have tried to do so very, very diligently.  We spoke with sources familiar with the scandal, and our first guidance was to request texts between LSP Trooper Patrick Thomas and then-Cadet Senette Small.  Here’s what we asked for in that request of July 5, 2022:

Text messages between Trooper Patrick Thomas and Academy Cadet Senette Small which precipitated an Internal Affairs investigation.

Bear in mind that the request was made on July 5, 2022.  On November 7, 2022 (125 DAYS!! after our request), here’s the response we received:

With regard to your request for text messages between Small and Thomas “which precipitated an Internal Affairs investigation,” please be advised that there are copies of limited text messaging between Small and Thomas in the investigative file related to the 2019 Academy cheating investigation. Those text messages were not the subject of any discipline for either employee and as such, the department considers the privacy interest of its employee’s communications outweighs any public interest in those text messages, pursuant to City of Baton Rouge/Parish of East Baton Rouge v. Capital City Press, L.L.C., 2007-CA-1088 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/10/08), 4 So.3d 807.

There goes that whole “right to privacy” assertion once again!  So, what our key sources with integral knowledge of the matter told us should be a critical item we should request has been blocked cold by LSP.  Go figure!  We’ve been told the contents of the texts, but we refrain from publishing items of that nature for which we don’t have the documents, and LSP deems the public to have no right to know what’s in those texts, so sorry, folks, we did our best, and we’re not inclined to go through another three-ring circus of a court trial given that we may well draw Judge Don Johnson once again!  Being blunt, there are several other judges we could draw for whom we would be just as uncomfortable as drawing Johnson!

We do want to drive one point home hard!  LSP Col. Lamar Davis has been by far (and we do mean by far) the most restrictive LSP Colonel regarding the release of records than either of his two predecessors who have served in his capacity since this blog was formed.  We firmly believe that propensity on Davis’ part provides the key to what is wrong with LSP and why the agency operates in such a clandestine manner.  Further, it’s our contention that aspect of LSP’s operations has gotten even more clandestine under Davis!  If anyone asks us our “trust level” for Davis on a scale of 1-10, we will quickly respond with “0.”

We therefore find it ironic that Davis would tout both when he was promoted to Colonel, and more recently, yesterday (Monday, November 14, 2022) just how “transparent” he’s making the agency.  Let’s spend just 13 seconds to see what Davis said to the Ronald Greene House Committee yesterday:

11/14/22:  Davis stresses how “transparent” he is making LSP to the public.

Our only commentary is that actions speak louder than words!

We weren’t the only ones unhappy with Col. Davis’ testimony before the Ronald Greene House Committee yesterday.  Let’s take a look at Ms. Mona Hardin, Ronald Greene’s mother, provide her testimony to Davis’ continued employment of Troopers Kory York and John Clary:

11/14/22:  Ms. Mona Hardin, mother of Ronald Greene, provides her testimony on LSP’s continued employment of Troopers Kory York and John Clary as well as other practices she has observed by LSP and Col. Lamar Davis.

Now, Gov. Edwards was supposed to be at this hearing; however, he had what he deemed to be far more important matters to attend to.

If we could take a wager, we would bet this groundbreaking was scheduled immediately after Edwards obtained knowledge of when this hearing would take place (we were told about 16 days ago), and the all-important ground breaking was then scheduled to coincide with the hearing.

Meanwhile, Ms. Hardin was left to continue to wonder with bewilderment when (or even if) anyone at LSP or the Governor himself will ever be held accountable for what happened to her son on May 10, 2019!

The fact that Edwards was not there did not stop Rep. Debbie Villio (R-Kenner) from getting to the bottom of whether or not, as Edwards has claimed, Ms. Hardin and her family were permitted to see the “Clary video” way back in October of 2020.  Let’s take a look:

11/14/22:  Ms. Hardin provides clarity on whether or not she or her family viewed the “Clary video” in October of 2020 as asserted by Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards.

After watching that video, no wonder Edwards skedaddled  to that groundbreaking ceremony!

Now, make no mistake, Col. Davis made it clear that, notwithstanding his soon-to-end tenure as LSP Colonel once a new Governor is sworn into office in January of 2024, he made it emphatically clear that “my vision” for LSP will continue many years after due to the people he’s placing in positions via promotions.  Let’s take a look:

11/14/22:  Davis emphasizes that his actions will have long-term impacts on LSP notwithstanding his short tenure as LSP Colonel.

As our subscribers are aware, it is Davis’ actions which have provoked the ire of white male troopers, who assert that Davis is looking no deeper than skin color or gender provided that an African American or female posts for a promotion and that his promotional decisions are based almost exclusively on that criterion alone.  We at Sound Off Louisiana have been bombarded with telephone calls and emails from ex-troopers who have unloaded upon Davis to us regarding promotions that literally boggle the mind based on what all we are told.  We also want to stress that these troopers have described the actions of the troopers in Troop F who were involved in Ronald Greene’s apprehension as “reprehensible.”

As most folk also know, we have embarked upon a long-term project (hopefully within 90 days or so, but it is a HECK of a massive undertaking) to construct tables for all of Davis’ promotions as well as all of the retirements and/or resignations of troopers since he took over LSP’s operations as Colonel.  At this time, let’s present the current progress we have on the promotional table:

We’re not going to comment on the contents of the above table because we already know many troopers have been awaiting publication even of the above material for a while now.  We appreciate everyone’s patience, and we’re going to gradually build both tables in full, but it is a huge undertaking, especially as we try to report on other matters both with LSP and otherwise.

We will state, however, that we will have an upcoming feature on one of the individuals featured in the table above and the stonewalling we encountered regarding a public records request made of that individual (spoiler alert:  that particular public records request was not made of LSP).

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