BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Louisiana Legislature is taking a deeper dive into the investigation of the death of Ronald Greene. A newly appointed committee held their first meeting Tuesday to investigate information around a cover-up.
The bipartisan committee decided their goal is to find out who knew what and when in regards to information about how Greene died and ways troopers allegedly covered up the true nature of his death.
“It’s imperative that we garner the facts and the truth surrounding his death and that we leave no stone unturned. Mr. Chairman, I really appreciate your leadership and your commitment to transparency because I think we not only owe that to the Greene family but we also owe it to the people of Louisiana,” Rep. Jason Hughes said.
They made a long list of people they are hoping to hear from and potentially subpoena. They also requested documents of text message records and policies they plan to read over before questioning officers.
“I’m not interested in any sort of witch hunt for any particular person. My only motivation in this committee is to get to the truth whatever that may be, wherever that may lead us,” Rep. Tanner Magee said.
When the legislative session convenes on Monday, a House resolution will be voted on to give the committee subpoena power if any of the requested troopers or administrators refuse to come forward. Chairman Magee said that includes higher-ups in state police such as Kevin Reeves who stepped down from leading the agency after Greene’s death and even the governor is not off the table.
“So many State Police officers are really good people. It’s unfortunate though in this incident there were a few bad apples,” Rep. Hughes said. “At the end of the day, Mr. Chairman, Ronald Greene’s death can be equated to a modern-day lynching.”
This investigation differs from the Senate committee that is looking into State Police practices and policies.
“We can all agree that what happened to Mr. Greene is something we should try to prevent as a society,” Rep. Magee said.
The committee is hoping to hear the first batch of testimony next week after the regular session begins.
