Well over three years after Louisiana state troopers beat an unarmed Ronald Greene and forced him prone on his belly on a dark roadside north of Monroe in 2019 until he went limp and then died, a state grand jury in Union Parish handed up an indictment Thursday listing charges against five law enforcement officers, our media partners at The Advocate report.
The indictment secured by District Attorney John Belton's office marks the first criminal charges, state or federal, over a deadly traffic stop that became another flashpoint in a national reckoning over police violence against Black people, the newspaper reports.
“Even though I’m glad for the arrests, it’s about what you’re going to make of the arrests. There needs to be substantial time for a cop who murders while in uniform,” Mona Hardin, Greene's mother, told the newspaper Thursday night.
According to The Advocate's reporting, a grand jury meeting at Farmerville in north Louisiana charged Master Trooper Kory York with one count of negligent homicide and 10 counts of malfeasance. Three other troopers and a Union Parish sheriff's deputy were charged with malfeasance and obstruction of justice.
To read the rest of The Advocate's coverage of the indictments, including reaction, click here.
