BATON ROUGE – Lincoln and Union Parish District Attorney John Belton says it’s still possible federal civil rights charges and state criminal charges could be handed down against the State Troopers involved in the fatal arrest death of motorist Ronald Greene. Belton says he recently met with officials in the Civil Rights Office in Washington, D.C who have been investigating this case for multiple years and could determine Greene’s civil rights were violated.
“The good news is that they have not said they were not doing anything and so basically, in a nutshell, without getting into specifics, they haven’t made their final decision (regarding the actions of LSP),” he said.
Belton says justice for the family of Ronald Greene could come from his office too. He would like to present evidence from the case to a special grand jury. He says he’s anticipating getting critical investigative files from the FBI this week.
“I’ve always said that I will move swiftly once I receive the investigative files from the federal authorities,” said Belton. “And so it seems like I may get them on Wednesday.”
During his remarks, Belton was asked about the apparent discrepancy between his and the governor’s accounts of when he received the body cam footage taken from Lieutenant John Clary. He says that his greater concern is with the actions of LSP.
“My concern is, I guess, mostly regarding state police because state police were in charge of turning that video over to me, and we didn’t receive it until April 2021,” Belton said.
Belton has announced his candidacy for State Attorney General and says he will run without a party affiliation.
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