Louisiana trooper avoids jail time in fatal arrest…

FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana state trooper said Monday he will plead no contest to substantially reduced charges that spare him prison time in a deadly 2019 arrest Black motorist Ronald Greenthe first conviction of any kind in the long-running police brutality case that once sparked national outrage.

Corey York faces the most serious charges of the five officers charged in the case two years ago body camera caught him pulled Green’s ankle cuffs and forced him to lie face down in handcuffs before he stopped breathing.

But instead of the initial charges of negligent homicide and criminal mischief, York pleaded no contest in exchange for a year of probation and an agreement to testify against the only officer still on trial.

The plea came despite strong objections from Green’s family, who said they were misled about the terms of the plea deal and denied the chance to see the criminal charges go to trial.

“My family is a victim and we should have more of a voice,” said Green’s mother, Mona Hardin, who declined to sign a last-minute plea deal pushed by prosecutors out of concern that York would be acquitted in a conservative corner of the state. .

“This doesn’t have to end today,” she told the packed courtroom. “This is wrong. It’s not fair.”

District Attorney John Belton declined Monday to say whether justice had been served in Green’s death, saying the case remains open.

York’s plea of ​​no contest is effectively equivalent to a guilty plea, but the conviction cannot be used in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Green’s family. York, 51, will also keep his pension of nearly $83,000 a year after he retires from the Louisiana State Police in August.

“This is clearly a victory for Corey York,” said his attorney, Mike Small. “This is not an admission of guilt.”

It was a dramatic climax in a case once shrouded in scandal, including allegations of a state police cover-up and institutional racism that sparked two still-unsolved federal investigations. The then governor is in a fever. John Bel Edwards called Green’s treatment criminal and racist, and Republican lawmakers threatened to impeach the Democrat over his handling of the case, only to drop a legislative investigation without even questioning him.

Green’s death in May 2019 raised suspicion from the start, when state authorities told grieving relatives he had died in a car accident at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — information immediately questioned by an emergency physician. However, the state police crash report made no mention of the use of force by troopers, and 462 days passed before the state police launched an internal investigation. All the while, officials from Edwards down refused to release the body camera video.

But in 2021, the Associated Press received and published footage showing soldiers swarming Green even as he appeared to raise his hands, begging for mercy and wailing, “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”

The police repeatedly pushed him with stun guns, one of which knocked him to the ground, strangled him and hit him in the face. One trooper hit Green on the head with a flashlight, and he was recorded boasting that he had “beat the living hell out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was thought to be the most guilty of the half-dozen officers involved in the arrest, but died in a road accident in 2020 hours after he learned he would be fired.

In the video, Yorke could be seen pinning a shackled, heavy Green face down for several minutes and repeatedly telling him to “shut up” and “get on your goddamn stomach like I told you!” Experts say this restraint could have dangerously restricted Green’s breathing.

Although state police suspended York for 50 hours for his role in Green’s arrest, investigators have not been able to determine what caused the 49-year-old’s death. Autopsy reports cited several factors, including repeated Taser use by soldiers, physical struggle, restraints while lying down, blunt force trauma and “complications from cocaine use,” with the medical examiner declining to say which was most fatal.

That ambiguity prompted prosecutors last month to release negligent homicide charges against York and attempt to plead guilty to the remaining 10 felony charges against him.

Greene’s death was one of several cases of blacks being beaten by Louisiana troopers, prompting the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation. civil rights investigation on the use of force by the state police. But federal prosecutors still haven’t said whether charges will be filed in the case after a years-long FBI investigation.

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Contact the AP Global Investigative Team at (email protected).