Justice Department opens probe into Louisiana State Police


              Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke speaks at a news conference in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, June 9, 2022. Left is U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe Jr., and right is U.S. Attorney Brandon B. Brown. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
            
              Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke exits at the conclusion of a news conference in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, June 9, 2022. Behind is U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe Jr. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
            
              Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke exits at the conclusion of a news conference in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, June 9, 2022. Behind are U.S. Attorneys Ronald C. Gathe Jr., left, and Duane A. Evans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
            
              Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke speaks at a news conference in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, June 9, 2022.  (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
            
              Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke speaks at a news conference in Baton Rouge, La., Thursday, June 9, 2022.  (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
            
              FILE - A Louisiana State Police sign is seen outside Louisiana State Police Troop F headquarters in Monroe, La., on Aug. 4, 2021. The U.S. Justice Department is opening a “pattern-or-practice” investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid mounting evidence that the agency has looked the other way in the face of beatings of mostly Black men. Officials familiar with the matter told The Associated Press it will be announced later Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
            
              FILE - Aaron Larry Bowman cries during an interview at his attorney's office in Monroe, La., Thursday, Aug. 5, 2021, as he discusses his injuries resulting from a Louisiana State trooper pummeling him with a flashlight during a traffic stop in 2019. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
            
              FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2010 image from police dashboard camera video, Louisiana State Police Trooper Jason LaMarca strikes Alejandro Soliz, right, during an arrest along Interstate 12 in Tangipahoa Parish, north of New Orleans. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this August 2019 photo provided by his attorney, Darrell Smith is apprehended by Louisiana State Police troopers after fleeing a a traffic stop near Baton Rouge, La. Smith's lawsuit says troopers shared this photo of him after a beating, with his eyes swollen shut, and the caption: "This is what happens when you run from the police." (Courtesy Haley & Associates via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this July 16, 2019 image from police dashboard camera video, Louisiana State Trooper Jacob Brown throws motorist Morgan Blake to the ground following a traffic stop in Ouachita Parish, La., during which troopers found 13 pounds marijuana in the car Blake was driving. Brown threw Blake to the ground after he asked for his handcuffs to be adjusted. Trooper Randall "Colby" Dickerson then punched Blake five times and kneed him in the side, the footage shows. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this Friday, May 13, 2019 image from Louisiana State Police Trooper Jacob Brown's body camera video, troopers hold down motorist Aaron Larry Bowman during a traffic stop. The graphic video kept secret for more than two years shows a trooper pummeling Bowman 18 times with a flashlight, an attack the trooper defended as "pain compliance." (Trooper Jacob Brown/Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this Saturday, May 23, 2020 image from Louisiana State Police body camera video, an unidentified law enforcement officer applies an electric weapon to the back of Black motorist Antonio Harris as other officers restrain him on the side of a road after a high speed chase in Franklin Parish, La. Troopers exchanged 14 text messages peppered with "lol" and "haha" responses in which they boasted about the beating. (Larry Shappley/Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this March 2, 2019 image from police dashboard camera video, Louisiana State Trooper Jacob Brown slams motorist DeShawn Washington against the hood of a police cruiser during a traffic stop in Ouachita Parish, La., after troopers found marijuana in the trunk of Washington's car. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
            
              FILE - Col. Lamar Davis, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, speaks about the agency's release of video involving the death of Ronald Greene, at a press conference held Friday, May 21, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. Greene was jolted with stun guns, put in a chokehold and beaten by troopers, and his death is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation. (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte, File)
            
              FILE - EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - In this photo provided by Alana Wilson, Mona Hardin looks over the body of her son, Ronald Greene in Rayville, La., on May 13, 2019. "I've been wandering around in a cloud of confusion just wondering: What does it take for the state of Louisiana to recognize the murder of a man? What does it take to get answers?" Hardin told Louisiana state lawmakers in a December 2021 hearing. (Alana Wilson via AP, File)
            
              FILE - This undated photo provided by his family in September 2020 shows Ronald Greene. Authorities initially said Greene died in May 2019 after crashing his vehicle into a tree following a high-speed chase in rural northern Louisiana that began over an unspecified traffic violation. But long-withheld video shows Louisiana State troopers stunning, punching and dragging the Black motorist — growing evidence obtained by an Associated Press investigation has revealed a pattern of violence kept shrouded in secrecy. (Family photo via AP, File)
            
              FILE - In this image from the body camera of Louisiana State Police Trooper Dakota DeMoss, his colleagues, Kory York, center left, and Chris Hollingsworth, center right, hold up Ronald Greene before paramedics arrived on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. No longer waiting for a federal investigation, state prosecutor Union Parish District Attorney John Belton says he intends to pursue his own case against the Louisiana troopers involved in the deadly 2019 arrest of Greene. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File, File)
            
              This image from video from Louisiana state police state trooper Dakota DeMoss' body-worn camera, shows troopers holding up Ronald Greene before paramedics arrived on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. Three years ago, when a beaten and battered Ronald Greene drew his final breath on a rural roadside, his death in Louisiana State Police custody seemed destined for obscurity. Family members were told falsely that he died in a car crash following a high-speed chase. Body camera footage of white troopers stunning, punching and dragging the Black motorist remained secret and withheld from his initial autopsy. Three years later the case has engulfed Louisiana’s elite law enforcement agency in controversy. (Louisiana State Police via AP)
Justice Department opens probe into Louisiana State Police