FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) 鈥 Mona Hardin has been waiting five long years for any resolution to the federal investigation into her son鈥檚 deadly arrest by Louisiana State Police troopers, an anguish only compounded by the fact that nearly every other major civil rights case during that time has passed her by.
It took just months for 鈥 beating death last year to result in federal charges against five Memphis police officers. A half-dozen white lawmen in Mississippi have been in last year's torture of two Black suspects. And federal prosecutors long ago brought swift charges in the slayings of in Minneapolis, in Georgia and in Kentucky.
Every one of those cases happened months or years after the death of in northern Louisiana on May 10, 2019, which sparked national outrage after The Associated Press published showing white troopers converging on the Black motorist before stunning, beating and dragging him as he wailed, 鈥淚鈥檓 scared!鈥
Yet half a decade after Greene鈥檚 violent death, the federal investigation remains open and unresolved with no end in sight. And Hardin says she feels ghosted and forgotten by a Justice Department that no longer even returns her calls.
鈥淲here鈥檚 Ronald Greene鈥檚 justice?鈥 asked Hardin, who refuses to bury her son's cremated remains until she gets some measure of accountability. 鈥淚 still have my boy in that urn, and that hurts me more than anything. We haven鈥檛 grieved the loss of Ronnie because we鈥檝e been in battle.鈥
Justice Department spokesperson Aryele Bradford said the investigation remains ongoing and declined to provide further details.
Under federal law, no statute of limitations applies to potential civil rights charges in the case because Greene鈥檚 arrest was fatal. But prosecutors have wavered for years on whether to bring an indictment, having all but assured Greene鈥檚 family initially that an exhaustive FBI investigation would produce charges of some kind.
A federal prosecution seemed so imminent in 2022 that one state police supervisor told AP he expected to be indicted. The FBI had shifted its focus in those days from the troopers who left Greene handcuffed and facedown for more than nine minutes to state police brass suspected of obstructing justice by suppressing video evidence, quashing a detective鈥檚 recommendation to arrest a trooper and pressuring a state prosecutor.
All the while, federal prosecutors asked local District Attorney John Belton to hold off on bringing state charges until the federal investigation was complete. They later reversed course, and in late 2022 a state grand jury on counts ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance. Charges remain against only two, with a trial scheduled for later this year for a senior trooper seen on video dragging Greene facedown by his ankle shackles.
State police initially blamed the 49-year-old's death north of Monroe on a crash following a high-speed chase over a traffic violation. But that explanation was called into question by photos of Greene鈥檚 body on a gurney showing his bruised and battered face, a hospital report noting he had two stun gun prongs in his back and the fact that his SUV had only minor damage. Even the emergency room doctor questioned the troopers鈥 initial account of a crash, writing in his notes: 鈥淒oes not add up.鈥
All that changed two years later when AP published graphic of Greene鈥檚 final moments, showing him being swarmed by troopers even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, 鈥淚鈥檓 your brother! I鈥檓 scared! I鈥檓 scared!鈥 Troopers repeatedly jolted Greene with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one of them wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face, Another called him a 鈥渟tupid motherf---鈥.鈥 They then ordered a shackled Greene to remain facedown on the ground, even as he struggled to prop himself up on his side.
A reexamined autopsy ordered by the FBI ultimately debunked the crash narrative and listed 鈥減rone restraint鈥 among other contributing factors in Greene鈥檚 death, including neck compression, physical struggle and cocaine use.
Greene鈥檚 family members weren鈥檛 the only ones baffled by the pace of the federal inquiry. Then-Gov. John Bel Edwards expressed private frustration with the lack of answers in a closed-door meeting with state lawmakers, saying he believed from the first time he saw the video, in late 2020, that Greene鈥檚 treatment was .
鈥淎re they ever going to come out and have a charge?鈥 the Democratic governor asked amid reporting by AP that he had been of Greene鈥檚 death that troopers engaged in a 鈥渧iolent, lengthy struggle.鈥
鈥淭his was a cover-up of the highest order,鈥 Michael McClanahan, president of the NAACP鈥檚 Louisiana state conference, told sign-toting demonstrators Friday outside the Union Parish Courthouse in Farmerville.
鈥淲hy call the police when they鈥檙e the very ones that might kill you?" McClanahan said. "It was Ronald Greene then but it鈥檚 been a whole lot since Ronald Greene. Enough is enough.鈥
Perhaps the most significant hurdle to federal charges was the untimely death of , the trooper who was seen on the video repeatedly bashing Greene in the head with a flashlight and was later recorded by his own body camera calling a fellow officer and saying, 鈥淚 beat the ever-living f--- out of him.鈥 Hollingsworth died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 hours after he was told he would be fired over his actions in Greene鈥檚 death.
Another major sticking point has been whether prosecutors could prove the troopers acted 鈥渨illfully鈥 in abusing Greene 鈥 a key component of civil rights charges that has complicated such prosecutions around the country. The FBI even enhanced the video of the arrest in an ultimately inconclusive attempt to determine whether he had been pepper-sprayed after he was in custody, focusing on an exchange in which a deputy jeeringly said, 鈥淪--- hurts, doesn鈥檛 it?鈥
The Justice Department has also been conducting a sweeping investigation into use of force by the Louisiana State Police and whether it engages in 鈥 .鈥 The department began that 鈥減attern-or-practice鈥 inquiry nearly two years ago following an that found Greene鈥檚 arrest was among at least a dozen cases in which troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct.
Also still pending is the federal wrongful death lawsuit Greene鈥檚 family filed four years ago seeking damages from the officers, who have denied wrongdoing. The civil case has been put on hold as the criminal proceedings play out.
Hardin said it's long past time for the state of Louisiana to make amends.
鈥淚t started with a lie 鈥 we were told Ronnie was killed in a car crash,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hat was wrong, and it has to be addressed. I will go to my grave knowing I did everything I could to get justice for Ronnie.鈥
___
Contact AP鈥檚 global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or
