Louisiana Voice

I first began writing about problems throughout the Louisiana State Police (LSP) in July 2014 when it was first revealed that then-LSP Superintendent Mike Edmonson had helped engineer a covert amendment to a legislative bill that would have illegally given him a huge boost in his retirement income.

Thanks to efforts by then-Sen. Dan Claitor and a knot of retired state troopers, the amendment, authored by Sen. Neil Riser and initially slipped through with no opposition, was quickly overturned.

Over the next three years, I wrote more than 175 stories about LSP, the Louisiana State Troopers Association and the State Police Commission, all of them casting the leadership at State Police in a negative light – negative because of gross mismanagement from the top down.

When John Bel Edwards was elected governor, I emailed him to ask his intentions regarding his appointment of a State Police superintendent. He emailed me back to say, “I have no intentions.”

That was less than truthful. Edwards had been supported in his gubernatorial run by the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association and the association in turn lobbied for the reappointment of Edmonson, first elevated to the position in 2008 by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Edwards, his mind already made up, obliged the sheriffs’ association by reappointing Edmonson even though 18 months earlier, in July 2014, he expressed outrage over the amendment that would’ve enriched Edmonson in retirement once he learned, along with other legislators, of the amendment’s real intent.

Why did the sheriffs’ association want Edmonson reappointed? Well, if you examine the number of sheriffs’ sons, other relatives and political cronies who have received appointments to the State Police Academy, the answer is pretty easy to understand. Law enforcement is a tightknit fraternity as witnessed by Murphy Paul’s smooth transition to BATON ROUGE POLICE CHIEF  following his retirement from State Police.

Apparently, his participation in that drive to San Diego via the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas did little to damage his career advancement plans even though that trip served as the crowning blow that forced EDMONSON OUT.

Once Edmonson stepped down, it was assumed the problems at LSP, after three years of intense media coverage, might finally be over.

It turns out, however, that far more serious problems were just beginning to surface in an organization where some state troopers continued to go rogue.

And a legitimate question was soon to be asked publicly by the state’s leading newspaper, The Baton Rouge Advocate: “How much dd Gov. John Bel Edwards know?”

The question was posed by the newspaper regarding the fatal arrest of Ronald Greene in Monroe nearly a year before the much-written about death of George Floyd.

Yesterday, Mike Noel resigned rather than subject himself to an anticipated grilling by state senators in his confirmation hearing as chairman of the State Gaming Commission over his role in the coverup of the beating death of Greene in May of 2019 – a time when Noel was serving as Chief of Staff to State Police Superintendent Kevin Reeves. Reeves had retired earlier in the buildup to the Greene case.

The same month of Greene’s death (May 2019), State Trooper Jacob Brown, who is white, was videotaped striking Aaron Bowman, who is black, 18 times within a 24-second span with the officer’s reinforced steel tactical flashlight even though Bowman was not resisting.

Brown, who then falsified his report of the incident, subsequently resigned following his arrest three months later.

It took considerably longer for the investigation to take place over the beating death of Greene. Fifteen months, in fact.

Meanwhile, yet another black man, Antonio Harris, was beaten by state police a year after Greene’s death.

All three incidents occurred in May and all three happened in Troop F, headquartered in Monroe and manned by a predominately white force.

Jacob Brown participated in the Bowman and Harris beatings and Dakota DeMoss was in on the Harris and Greene incidents.

On Wednesday, it was announced that DeMoss and George Harper, who was also involved in the Harris beating, were fired last week.

In all three cases, the victims had foolishly attempted to flee when officers tried to pull them over but each had not resisted officers when finally apprehended.

The Greene death has understandably received the most media attention even though lawsuits have been filed in all three matters. That’s because it was the only case where the victim died.

It is also the one that took the longest time – 15 months – for an investigation and then only as a result of intense media attention.

State police possessed video of the Greene arrest and death but steadfastly refused to release it to the public. Edwards initially supported the refusal to release the video but when it was leaked, LSP finally released the video and Edwards’ tone changed:

“Today, Louisiana State Police released all of the video footage in its possession from the arrest of Ronald Greene, a move which I strongly support,” he said. “This was done in consultation with both the U.S. Attorney’s office and District Attorney John Belton in Union Parish. As I’ve said before, I found the full video of Mr. Greene’s arrest, which I reviewed last year, to be disturbing and difficult to watch.”

In that May 21 statement, Edwards acknowledged that he had first viewed the video on Oct. 14, 2020. Yet DeMoss and Harper weren’t TERMINATED from their positions until last week, more than two years after Greene’s death and 13 months after the Harris beating.

And now, because of the administration’s foot-dragging in these cases, the feds are involved. They should be. LSP is also conducting its own INTERNAL INVESTIGATION into whether or not troopers are targeting black motorists for abuse.

So, yes, it’s a legitimate question to ask what Gov. Edwards knew and when he knew it.

And it’s also worth noting that it’s far past time he jerked a half-hitch in the upper command at LSP headquarters.

For too long, state troopers have been allowed to have sex in their patrol vehicles, take underage women to casinos, funnel money through the troopers’ association to political candidates in apparent violation of civil service regulations, encouraged to make DWI arrests whether or not motorists were drinking, allowed to perform private work while on duty and other transgressions – all while the administration looked the other way.

In short, when Mike Edmonson left, the problems did not leave LSP with him. It’s an agency that has been allowed to run amok.

It’s past time to rein LSP in, the sheriffs’ association notwithstanding.