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U.S.|U.S. Won’t Bring Charges Against Officers in Death of Ronald Greene
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/us/ronald-greene-death-federal-prosecutors-charges.html
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Investigators found insufficient evidence to federally charge the surviving officers in the encounter, in which a Black driver was pulled over, dragged, beaten and shocked.
Jan. 14, 2025Updated 10:03 p.m. ET
The Justice Department will not bring criminal charges in the 2019 death of Ronald Greene, a Black driver who was pulled over and beaten by the police in Louisiana, officials said Tuesday, bringing an end to a yearslong federal criminal investigation.
It was the last criminal inquiry into the officers who punched and shocked Mr. Greene, 49, whom the police pursued because of a traffic violation in May 2019.
The Justice Department “found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against surviving Louisiana State Police troopers and officials involved in the incident or its aftermath,” a department spokesperson said. The primary trooper involved in the matter, Chris Hollingsworth, who was placed on administrative leave in 2020, died in a single-vehicle car crash that year.
Dinelle Hardin, Mr. Greene’s sister, said that the Justice Department “failed to protect the citizens of Louisiana” in their decision to not bring criminal charges.
“I’m not surprised by the outcome,” said Ms. Hardin, adding that she felt “this was the one time we could have possibly gotten some type of change” when it comes to the state’s police.
Mr. Greene’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court in 2020. It is still pending.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Louisiana announced in January 2022 that there was an “open and ongoing criminal investigation.” Months later, the Justice Department began a civil investigation into the Louisiana State Police to assess whether its officers had used excessive force or racially discriminatory policing. Federal investigators have not yet released their findings from the civil investigation.
