Family members of Ronald Green, a Black motorist who was killed during a 2019 arrest in North Louisiana, were informed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday that they would not bring charges related to his death. The decision closes the books on a lengthy FBI investigation into the white troopers who stunned, punched and dragged Greene on a roadside and allegations of an attempted cover-up by the Louisiana State Police, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. Justice Department informed Greene’s family of the decision as officials were also preparing to release findings from a broader civil rights investigation that found a pattern of state troopers using excessive force, according to two officials familiar with the inquiry. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they could not publicly discuss details ahead of an announcement expected later in the week.
That “pattern-or-practice” inquiry, launched in 2022, followed an AP investigation that found Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases in which state troopers and their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct in the agency. In one case, a white trooper pummeled a Black man 18 times with a flashlight following a traffic stop, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head. “There’s no closure here,” Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, told AP after meeting with prosecutors. “I knew it was coming. They’re just pouring sugar on s—-.”