A grand jury in the Third Judicial District convenes today seeking indictments against State Troopers involved in the 2019 beating death of Black motorist Ronald Greene. It doesn’t appear the federal government will bring charges against those troopers and Loyola University Law Professor Dane Ciolino said that doesn’t preclude the state from bringing charges.
“Now in this case what’s unusual is that almost all of the facts have been known about this case for a very long, long time. It’s a bit curious that only now the state prosecutors are only presenting this to a grand jury,” said Ciolino.
Ciolino said in a difficult case like this one for prosecutors, you don’t know if District Attorney John Belton is seeking to indict or seeking cover, essentially asking a grand jury to find no probable cause for a true bill of indictment…
“Rather than the prosecutor simply saying that it was his decision not to push the matter forward towards a prosecution,” said Ciolino.
After hearing the evidence in the case, Ciolino said if the grand jury returns no true bill, it’s likely the end of it.
At one of the special Louisiana House oversite committee meetings reviewing Greene’s death, Belton testified he believed state and federal crimes were committed and video of the arrest was the worst he’s ever seen.
Ciolino said video of the arrest has been public since May of 2021 and he’s not aware of any new evidence in the case.
“Some of the people involved, well at least one of the people involved has died, one of the possible defendants. It makes the case against the other possible officers a bit more tenuous,” said Ciolino.
In May of 2019, Greene was brutally beaten during a trooper arrest following a two-parish high-speed chase that ended with a car crash near Monroe.
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