Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat in a deeply red state, was in the midst of a difficult reelection campaign when he received a text message from the state police chief: Troopers had engaged in “a violent, lengthy fight” with a Black motorist, which ended in the man’s death.
According to text conversations obtained through a public records request, Edwards was informed of the circumstances surrounding Ronald Greene’s death within hours of his arrest in May 2019. Despite this, the governor remained silent when police told the victim’s family and in official accounts that Greene died in a crash during a high-speed chase.
For two years, Edwards stayed silent about the conflicting accounts and apparent cover-up until reporters uncovered and published previously unreleased body-camera footage that revealed what really happened: “I’m your brother!” wailed Greene as white troopers jolted him with stun guns, punched him in the face, and dragged him by his ankle chains. I’m terrified! “I’m terrified!”
Edwards has turned down multiple interview requests, and his spokeswoman would not specify what, if any, actions he took in the aftermath of Greene’s death. “The governor does not direct disciplinary or criminal investigations, nor would it be acceptable for him to do so,” stated spokesperson Christina Stephens.
A federal civil rights investigation into the fatal confrontation and whether police brass obstructed justice to protect the troopers who apprehended Greene has raised concerns about what the governor knew when he knew it, and what he did.
“When did he discover the truth?” says the narrator. Sen. Cleo Fields, a Baton Rouge Democrat and vice-chair of a legislative committee set up last year to investigate charges of excessive force by state police.
According to law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, the FBI has asked people about Edwards’ awareness of various aspects of the case in recent months. Investigators have zeroed in on a powerful senator who claims the governor downplayed the need for a special prosecutor.
According to the governor’s spokeswoman, neither he nor any of his staff is under investigation.
During his reelection campaign in 2019 and the summer of protests in 2020 against racial injustice in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Edwards remained silent on the Greene case. Edwards refused to characterize the troopers’ behavior and denied calls to release their body-camera video, citing his concern for not interfering with the federal inquiry, even after Greene’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit that attracted attention to the matter in late 2020.
Edwards eventually spoke out after reporters obtained and published previously unreleased film of the incident that left Greene bleeding, unmoving, and limp on a dark road near Monroe.
Edwards slammed the troopers’ behavior, calling them “very unethical and deeply troubling.”
With a statement, the governor stated, “I am disappointed in them and any cop who stood by and did not act.” Later, he referred to the soldiers’ behavior as “criminal.”
However, Edwards, a lawyer from a long line of Louisiana sheriffs, has made comments since the video’s release that minimizes troopers’ actions, including repeating the story that Greene was killed in a car accident.
“Did he pass away as a result of the accident?” In September, Edwards responded to a question on a radio broadcast. “Clearly, he wasn’t killed in the collision because he was still alive when the troopers confronted him.” What was the cause of death, though? I don’t believe that was misrepresented.”
Greene’s death was attributed to “physical struggle,” troopers repeatedly shocking him, striking him in the head, confining him for long periods of time, and Greene’s use of cocaine, according to a reexamined autopsy commissioned by the FBI weeks after those remarks.
A chat Edwards had last June with state Rep. Clay Schexnayder, the influential Republican House speaker who was exploring a legislative probe into the Greene case following the broadcast of the video has piqued the interest of federal investigators.
The governor told Schexnayder this week that the legislature didn’t need to take any additional action because “Greene died in a wreck.” To avoid interfering with the federal inquiry, the speaker said he never proceeded forward with the investigation.
The governor’s office admitted that he informed legislative leadership on his “understanding of the Greene inquiry” and that his comments were in line with his public pronouncements. The US Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s time to figure out what happened, who knew what and when, and who covered it up,” Schexnayder told reporters. “The Greenes are entitled to the truth.”
On May 10, 2019, around 10 a.m., Edwards received notification of the Greene case in a text from then-Louisiana State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves, about nine hours after the fatal arrest.
“Good morning, everyone. ”Just a heads up,” the note stated. “Troopers attempted to halt a car in Ouachita Parish early this morning. The vehicle sped through two parishes at almost 110 mph before colliding. Troopers made an attempt to apprehend the motorist. However, a long and bloody conflict ensued. After a brief struggle with the suspect, troopers were assisted by a Union Parish deputy and were able to apprehend the guy. The suspect continued aggressive until EMS arrived, at which point he fell unresponsive.”
The explanation supplied to Edwards, whom his spokeswoman referred to as a “routine notice,” differed significantly from what Greene’s family claims it was told by troopers at nearly the same time: that the 49-year-old died on impact in a car crash at the end of a chase. Greene was killed in a car accident, according to a coroner’s report that day, and a state police crash report makes no mention of troopers employing force.
Reeves concluded his text by informing the governor that the man’s death was being looked into.
Edwards said, “Thank you.”
Those were among the few remarks from Edwards himself released in response to the comprehensive public-records request for materials connected to Greene’s death, which was submitted in June. Edwards’ messages to his staff have not been provided, and the governor’s office has failed to completely answer to a separate December request for his texts with three top police officials.
Hundreds of other emails and text messages released by the governor’s office show that, while he has publicly distanced himself from the case and issues of state police violence, his staff has been more involved behind the scenes, with his top lawyer contacting state and federal prosecutors about the Greene case on multiple occasions.
In November, Alexander Van Hook, the interim U.S. attorney in Shreveport who oversaw the civil rights inquiry into Greene’s killing until December, stated there had been no attempt by the governor to sway the probe. “If there had been, it wouldn’t have gone over well with us,” Van Hook told reporters.
After learning of Greene’s death, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, said Edwards had a responsibility to at least follow up with the state police chief.
“He’s astonished when anything goes wrong,” Landry added, “when he’s directly involved in attempting to control the message and distort it from the public.”
Meanwhile, state police recently admitted that after Reeves abruptly left in 2020 during the initial reporting on Greene’s death, the department “sanitized” his cellphone, purposefully removing communications. Another former police commander, Mike Noel, resigned from a regulatory role last year as he was going to be questioned by MPs about the issue, and the agency said it did the same to his phone. According to the police, such erasures are standard procedures.
According to Edwards’ office, the governor first learned about the “allegations surrounding Mr. Greene’s death” in September 2020, the same month that a state senator forwarded a copy of the Greene family’s wrongful-death lawsuit to Edwards’ lawyers.
Greene’s death has yet to be charged as a homicide, and only one of the troopers involved in his arrest has been dismissed. Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, who was videotaped claiming he “beat the ever-living f—- out of” Greene, died in a car accident shortly after learning he would lose his position in 2020.
After the published audio of Hollingsworth’s statements, the governor studied a video of Greene’s deadly arrest in early October 2020, according to his spokesperson.
Some critics of Edwards’ attitude to the Greene case believe it was partly motivated by political considerations. The centrist Democrat was facing a tough reelection campaign in a fiercely conservative state against a Republican endorsed by Donald Trump at the time of the fatal arrest. High Black turnout and crossover support from law enforcement were critical to his reelection.
Greene’s death — and the resulting footage — would have “politically challenged both voting groups at the same time,” according to Joshua Stockley, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana Monroe.
However, the first public hints that Greene had been molested did not emerge until months after Edwards narrowly defeated businessman Eddie Rispone with 51 percent of the vote. He won largely due to high voter turnout among African-Americans in metropolitan areas, garnering 90 percent of the vote in Orleans Parish, which encompasses New Orleans and has a population of 60 percent African-Americans.
“It’s difficult for me to imagine that the release of this video during the election had no significant impact,” Stockley added. “It would’ve been massive.”
