The Louisiana State Police superintendent wrote himself an ominous note days after the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene: “Realize there is a problem — must address immediately.” Excerpts of a personal journal made public Thursday show Col. Kevin Reeves considered aggressive action after his troopers beat, stunned and dragged Greene. State police didn’t launch an internal investigation for another 462 days. A legislative committee is now seeking to hold Reeves in contempt for refusing to turn over his full journals. His lawyer says Reeves is cooperating and the delays in the Greene case are not his doing.
Within days of the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, when body-camera video captured white troopers stunning, beating and dragging the Black motorist, the head of the Louisiana State Police wrote a stark note about the case in his journal: “Realize there is a problem — must address immediately.” But well over a year went by before Col. Kevin Reeves opened an internal investigation into the actions of the troopers involved, including one who was recorded boasting he “beat the ever-living f—k out of” Greene.
Eleven pages from Reeves’ three journals were released Thursday in response to a subpoena from a legislative committee looking into a possible cover-up of the case. And the panel’s chairman says the troubling questions raised by those few pages were enough to demand that Reeves comply by turning over all his journals, with a threat of contempt charges if he doesn’t.
While the handwritten pages are in places difficult to decipher, a page of notes dated just 12 days after Greene’s death are clear, a to-do list of possible actions in response to the case: suspending officers or putting them on administrative leave, opening up an internal probe and conducting a video audit of Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, who boasted of beating Greene and had a history of turning off his body-camera video.