Feds, LSP, legislative committee strangely quiet on probe of Ronald Greene death; DA plans to take case to a grand jury

Has anyone else noticed that the Special House Committee to Inquire into the Circumstances George Floyd death and Investigation of the Death of Ronald Greene hasn’t seemed to be in any particular hurry to move forward with its “investigation” in the past few months?

You’d think that if the committee has completed its work, it would have issued a report of its findings by now. Otherwise, what was the point of its creation unless it was to placate Greene’s family? If it has not finished its investigation, you might expect the committee to expand its probe into claims by a Louisiana State Police (LSP) detective who said he was targeted by superiors after he refused to take part in what he termed a “coverup” of Greene’s death at the hands of state troopers.

It’s been more than three years since Greene’s death, originally attributed to injuries suffered in a minor automobile crash but later revealed by video footage to have been a homicide. Only now do we learn from 3^rd JDC District Attorney John Belton that the case will go before a GRAND JURY by the end of the year.

Belton is district attorney for the parishes of Lincoln and Union. Greene’s death occurred in Union in May 2019.

Greene’s death has attracted almost as much national media attention as the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in May 2020, almost exactly a year after Greene’s death.

The beating and tasing death of Greene was the latest of a string of incidents involving state police, supposedly Louisiana’s elite law enforcement agency but one that could well be headed towards a federal consent decree if it continues to exhibit an unwillingness to correct its many problems which have included beatings of other black motorists, particularly in northeast Louisiana’s Troop F, an academy cheating scandal, sexual escapades by troopers, and payroll fraud.

That special House committee put its hearings on hold at the end of the 2022 legislative session. Committee member Rep. Edmond Jordan (D-Baton Rouge) said the committee planned to meet again but as yet…silence.

Belton was put into something of a legal bind when federal prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Louisiana’s Western District asked that he wait for the conclusion of their investigation before initiating state charges.

But in the end, federal prosecutors punted and turned over their files to Belton. That’s after LSP stalled and covered up and now after the House special committee is beginning to display reluctance to pursue the matter further.

LSP’s big ANNOUNCEMENT today that it has been accepted into the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project would almost seem as a defensive tactic to deflect attention from its multiple missteps over the past several years.

LSU and the Saints should be able to play defense so skillfully.