Louisiana police to pay $4.85m to daughter of Black motorist who died at officers’ hands in 2019

Louisiana’s state police and a local sheriff’s office have agreed to pay $4.85m to the daughter of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who was fatally shocked with a stun gun, punched and dragged during a 2019 arrest.The settlement agreement was reached during a mediation that concluded on Tuesday evening, according to a source with direct knowledge of the talks. It is one of the more substantial legal outcomes for a death that otherwise yielded only misdemeanor convictions for two of the officers involved.A spokesperson for Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill said their office had no comment on the settlement agreement, which is still subject to state legislative approval. An attorney for Greene’s daughter, Tayla, could not immediately be reached for comment, and neither could a spokesperson for Louisiana governor Jeff Landry.Police body-worn camera footage of Greene’s death outside the Louisiana community of Monroe, withheld for two years but published by the Associated Press in 2021, showed troopers swarming Greene even as he evidently raised his hands, pleaded for mercy and wailed: “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”Troopers repeatedly shocked Greene with stun guns before he could get out of the car that day of 10 May 2019.One wrestled him to the ground, put him in a chokehold and punched him in the face while another insulted him as a “stupid motherfucker”. Troopers then ordered a shackled Greene to remain on the ground with his face down, which experts said may have dangerously restricted his breathing.State police initially blamed the ensuing death of Greene, 49, on a crash stemming from a high-speed chase over a traffic violation. But that explanation unraveled when photos surfaced of Greene’s body on a gurney depicted his bruised and battered face. There was also a hospital report noting he had a pair of stun gun prongs in his back, and his sport-utility vehicle had only minor damage.Furthermore, an emergency room doctor who examined Greene questioned troopers’ claims of a crash, writing in his notes: “Does not add up.”Federal prosecutors ultimately did not pursue charges. In late 2022, a state grand jury indicted four troopers at the time of Greene’s death – Dakota DeMoss, Kory York, John Clary and Gage Hollingsworth – and then deputy Chris Harpin of the Monroe-area sheriff’s office in Union parish, Louisiana, on charges ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance.That case eventually culminated in misdemeanor battery charges against just York and Harpin, who joined the troopers at the scene of Greene’s deadly arrest. Each pleaded no contest.Hollingsworth died in a high-speed, single-car wreck in 2020, within hours of being told he would be fired over his role in Greene’s death, the AP has previously reported.The five officers indicted in Greene’s death were all white.Tuesday’s mediated settlement agreement was in connection to a federal civil lawsuit filed by Tayla Greene that alleged her father’s death was wrongful. The pact – a copy of which the Guardian reviewed – centered on claims against DeMoss, York, Clary, Hollingsworth and Harpin.After the AP reported that Greene’s arrest was one of at least a dozen cases in which state police troopers and their supervisors ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and blocked efforts to eradicate misconduct from their agency, the US justice department launched a broader civil rights investigation. That investigation determined state troopers had used excessive force, as the AP reported.Greene’s death occurred about a year before a white Minneapolis police officer’s murder of Black resident George Floyd – video of which was recorded on a bystander’s cellphone – ignited racial justice protests on streets worldwide. The AP obtained and published the police body-worn camera footage of the police violence inflicted on Greene about a year after Floyd’s murder.