The one overriding, indisputable fact that keeps surfacing in the ongoing testimony in that House committee investigating the death of Ronald Greene is this: someone is lying.
I don’t mean some innocent, “that’s not what I meant” kind of white lie or simple omission of fact; I’m talking about bald-face, through-the-teeth lies uttered by members of what is supposed to be the shining light on the hill of Louisiana law enforcement: Louisiana State Police (LSP).
The lies are so obvious that one observer suggested that perhaps the committee would have been wise to sequester the witnesses so that they would not be able to hear – and subsequently support – their co-workers’ prevarications in their own testimony.
There also can be no mistake that the wagons have been circled by LSP and that no effort will be spared to lay the blame for the death of Ronald Greene and the subsequent cover-up at the feet of the one trooper unable to defend himself and a group of LSP investigators and former investigators who attempted to do their jobs by conducting a real investigation.
Sgt. Albert Paxton, who has since resigned in disgust, testified last week that, “Any time I raised any concerns (about what happened on the night of May 10, 2019), they got mad.” He said he was told that he needed “to shut up [and] don’t talk about it anymore.”
He said he was warned by fellow investigator Det. Scott Brown of the potential fallout from the investigation. “Scott told me, ‘You know what rolls downhill …and they’re gonna want somebody to blame and they’re gonna blame us.’”
Paxton said he disagreed with former LSP Superintendent Kevin Reeves’s assessment of Greene’s death as “awful, but lawful.” He said what happened to Greene was instead “torture and murder.”
So, just who was it that told him to forget about investigating the circumstances surrounding Greene’s death? Capt. John Peters (the commander of Troop F in Monroe) told Paxton and another detective, Scott Brown, “If the investigation led to any arrests, there’d be trouble with BOI (Bureau of Investigation) and patrol,” Paxton told the committee.
He added that Peters said, “We don’t turn these videos over and we don’t tell the DA (District Attorney John Belton) about it.”
That is obstruction of justice, any way you slice it.
Paxton said he is convinced that if he’d complied with Peters’ directive, “we’d all be in jail today.”
Committee Chairman Rep. Tanner Magee (R-Houma) later returned to that issue when he asked Brown, “Did anyone ask you to conceal evidence?”
“Yessir,” Brown replied.
“Did you tell Col. Reeves?”
“Yessir.”
“Was this in a meeting that Albert Paxton referred to.”
“Who asked you to conceal evidence?” asked committee member Edmond Jordan (D-Brusly).
“John Peters,” Brown replied.
He added that when Reeves was told about investigators being asked not to provide evidence to the district attorney, “He (Reeves) was upset because his son (also a state trooper) was in the room.”
Paxton noted that Maj. Chavez Cammon and Maj. Kenny Van Buren were present during the discussion of the surfacing of the John Clary video and both were subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel rank by current State Police Superintendent Lamar Davis.
Rep. Debbie Villio, a former prosecuting attorney, noted that she felt like the committee “finally heard from a witness today who is wholly credible.”
LSP command appears to be trying to shift blame for the entire matter onto former Trooper Chris Hollingsworth who was fired for his role and a few days later died from injuries suffered in a single-vehicle accident that some have said was a case of suicide.
The time-honored tradition of shooting the messenger is also in play as those charged with investigating Greene’s death have themselves become targets of an inter-agency investigation.
That, more than any other factor, is the reason Paxton has since retired from LSP. Responding to charges that his was simply a case of a disgruntled employee, he admitted he was bitter. “I was coming forward. I raised concerns about the incident. They went through my emails and wanted to know why I emailed my wife copies of my reports.
“She’s an attorney and an accountant. She proofs all my reports. She’s done that for 14 years. They harassed her and wanted to play word games with her. Then they wanted to pay word games with me. I’m very upset at the way my wife was treated. I’m retired now. The videos are still there. You tell the people who’re saying this about me to take the case over. Tell them to watch the videos and explain to you how they think they’re okay.”
“Don’t blame my detectives,” he said. “My detectives did what they thought they should have been doing – which they’ve done countless times. They asked for all the video.” Then, referring to LSP command, he said, “Shame on you if we can’t trust you.”
Paxton also said it appeared suspicious to him that state police cell phones were turned in during an investigation. “I wouldn’t want to do it,” he said.
Faye Morrison, formerly the general counsel for LSP, denied that she was ever advised that phones issued to her, Reeves, his one-time chief of staff Mike Noel, and Lt. Col. Doug Cain were being “sanitized.”
Reeves and Noel had retired, but Cain and Morrison are still with state police, raising questions as to why their phones would need to be erased. And Reeves claims his private cell phone was “crushed,” destroying any data it contained. C’mon, seriously?
Noel testified that he was unaware that texts on his phone might be considered evidence.
That would seem to raise immediate questions about his qualifications to serve as a state trooper. All officers have to know that cell phone data is evidence. If that does not raise questions, it certainly should raise doubts as to the veracity of his testimony.
And how could Morrison not have knowledge of the sanitization of the phones when her own phone was erased just about the time litigation was being filed over Greene’s death?
It should be noted that like Reeves, most LSP personnel used their personal cell phones for texting, which in turn raises two more questions: why is this practice allowed (see Hillary Clinton)? And why haven’t those private phone messages been subpoenaed?
A third question that has been answered to no one’s satisfaction is this: if, as Faye Morrison testified, all such data (texts, emails, etc.) are backed up on a document management and storage system such as SharePoint, why has there been no effort to retrieve said data?
And a fourth question: Where the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association figure in all of this mess?
There’s just something about this blue wall of protection that doesn’t pass the smell test.
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