Grand jury indicts five in Ronald Greene case
Troopers involved in the 2019 deadly arrest of Ronald Greene were indicted Thursday on criminal charges by a Union Parish grand jury. Above is an image from body camera footage of the incident.
A Union Parish grand jury has indicted four Louisiana state troopers and one local sheriff’s deputy with charges stemming from the 2019 deadly arrest of Ronald Greene.
After meeting for three days and deliberating for more than one hour Thursday, the grand jury indicted Kory York, John Clary, Dakota Demoss, John Peters and Chris Harpin on a combined 18 criminal counts. Warrants have been issued for their arrest.
Clary, of Ruston, was the ranking officer on the scene the night of May 10, 2019, after Greene, a Black man, led troopers on a high-speed chase from Monroe to a rural Union Parish road.
It was there that body camera footage shows troopers beat Greene, tased him and dragged him across the ground by ankle shackles as he begged for mercy. He was pronounced dead at a hospital later that night.
Harpin was a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy at the time of the incident. York, Clary, Demoss and Peters were state troopers. Peters is the former commander of the state police’s Troop F, the division to which each trooper belonged.
The grand jury charged Peters on a separate bill of indictment than the other four.
Here are the charges:
- Kory York: One count of negligent homicide, 10 counts of malfeasance in office
- Chris Harpin: 3 counts of malfeasance in office
- John Clary: 1 count of malfeasance in office, one count of obstruction of justice
- Dakota Demoss: 1 count of obstruction of justice
- John Peters: 1 count of obstruction of justice
The grand jury heard from two witnesses Thursday, including Seth Stoughton, a use-of-force expert who previously gave testimony in the murder cases of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery -- two killings that became flashpoints in a renewed outcry against racial injustice in the U.S.
Third Judicial District Attorney John Belton brought the charges to the grand jury.
Federal Department of Justice officials had initially asked Belton to hold off on his investigation of the incident while they investigated it, but in April, U. S. Attorney Brandon Brown gave Belton the go-ahead to proceed with state prosecution.
“I’ve always said I would take all the legal evidence to the grand jury and allow the grand jury to make a decision,” Belson said Thursday evening after the indictments were read. “The citizens of Union Parish have spoken today.”
This is a developing story. See the weekend edition of the Ruston Daily Leader for more details.
