Four years after the death of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist, a Louisiana judge has made a decision in the case against his attackers.
CNN recently reported that court documents filed on Monday (July 10) showed a ruling made by Third Judicial District Court Judge Thomas W. Rogers. The magistrate decided to remove the obstruction of justice charges against former state troopers John Peters and Dakota DeMoss.
Both officers were involved in a May 2019 fatal incident with Greene. At the time, police claimed the 49-year-old was resisting arrest and struggling with troopers. The confrontation reportedly took place after a chase and car crash outside the city of Monroe. In 2021, camera footage of the matter was released to the public. The video showed authorities pulling Greene from his vehicle before violently beating and tasing him. When Greene’s family learned of his death, law enforcement allegedly informed them that he died on impact in the crash.
During the ruling, Rogers claimed two statements reportedly made by Peters during the investigation did not meet the qualification of the previous charge against him. “[Peters] is alleged to have said, ‘Bury it in the report,’ and ‘Don’t send the videos unless the [district attorney] asks for it,'” the judge’s decision read. “‘Bury it in the report’ presumably is an admonition not to destroy, alter or remove inculpating evidence from a report, but to place it in the middle or towards the end of the report where a reader might overlook it.”
The statement added, “Likewise, the second statement about not sending videos unless asked for is not an admonition to destroy, alter or remove the videos.” In DeMoss’ case, the judge dropped the obstruction count because his decision to turn off his body camera audio did not constitute obstruction, the outlet noted.
Judge Rogers gave prosecutors three days to cure deficiencies raised by the court against three other defendants (Kory York, John Clary, and Chris Harpin) in the case. If not, the district attorney could see more charges quashed by the judge.