Louisiana Voice

Four years after the fact, the Louisiana State Police (LSP) Department has been ordered to surrender a video of LSP Trooper Matthew “No Neck” Clair as he laid one across the face of a handcuffed prisoner at the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center in Marksville.

For four long years, LSP DENIED Baton Rouge TV station WAFB access to the tape of Clair popping the prisoner, who had been booked into jail on a DUI charge. So, the TV station SUED for access to the video.

You’d think LSP would finally learn after losing so many public records requests from members of the media. But noooo, they have to keep going to the well and coming up empty.

Remember how it took three years for video of the Ronald Greene beating at the hands of half-a-dozen state troopers and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy? Three years of lying about the existence of body cam video that existed all along and now LSP is apparently stupid enough to think it can pull the same coverup again. WAFB’s early requests were met with denials of the existence of video, a denial that sounds eerily familiar to the initial Ronald Greene denials.

This time, though 19^th Judicial District Court Judge William Jorden would have none of it. Today, he ordered LSP to surrender the video depicting what has been alleged as excessive force.

First to break the news of the judge’s order was Robert Burns, owner of the Sound Off Louisiana web blog. He has been following the incident since at least March 1.

Quick to follow with its own story was WAFB, which not only posted the story but also posted the video in question. It’s the third video down in the WAFB story. To watch it and to judge for yourself whether or not excessive force was used, go HERE.

The video was from the Avoyelles Sheriff’s Office because Clair did not have his body cam on (that seems to happen a lot with state police). Clair was initially suspended without pay for 40 hours in 2022 but that discipline was later overturned on appeal when State Police Commander Col. Robert Hodges assumed command. Instead, Clair received only a non-disciplinary letter of counseling—sort of a participating trophy.

State police explained that Clair, who had been a state trooper since 2006, had not received updated training on current techniques prior to the slapping incident—16 years after joining LSP. Well, hell, these things take time.

Burns quoted an unnamed state trooper who called the LSP explanation “B.S.” He told Burns, “They (LSP) train on defensive tactics every year, without fail.”