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Louisiana officials have agreed to pay a $4.8 million settlement to the family of a Black motorist killed during a 2019 traffic stop.
The settlement, reached Tuesday (May 12), would end the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the victim’s daughter, Tayla Greene, in 2021, according to The Associated Press.
Tayla filed the suit after the AP obtained bodycam footage showing Louisiana State Police officers violently arresting her father, Ronald Greene, during a traffic stop in 2019. The troopers had reportedly initially pulled Greene over for an unspecified traffic violation.
“I can confirm that we reached an agreement to resolve outstanding claims in civil litigation against the State arising from the incident involving Ronald Greene,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement Wednesday (May 13). “The State agreed that it was time to end this litigation, which arose under the prior administration, and put this matter behind us.”
The 46-minute clip shows the troopers repeatedly stunning, punching, and even dragging Greene across the ground after putting him in handcuffs. One trooper, identified as Chris Hollingsworth, jolted Greene before he could get out of his car and yanked him to the ground, despite him not resisting and pleading that he was “sorry” for leading the cops on a chase.
Another can be seen putting Greene in a chokehold and repeatedly punching him in the face while shouting “Stupid motherf—,” and another can be seen dragging him by the leg shackles and holding him prone on the roadside while stepping on his back and pressing his bloodied face into the asphalt.
Greene was reportedly left in that prone position by officers, impeding his breathing for at least nine minutes. The officers failed to render medical aid, and he died on the way to the hospital.
Hollingsworth, who was also seen repeatedly bashing Greene in the head with a flashlight, was later recorded by his boy cam saying: “I beat the ever-living f— out of him.”
Hollingsworth reportedly died in a high-speed, single-vehicle crash in 2020 after being told he would be fired over Greene’s death, per the AP.
Louisiana officials reportedly rebuffed repeated calls to release footage, with troopers initially telling Greene’s family that he died after crashing into a tree during a high-speed chase.
Federal prosecutors told Greene’s family in January 2025 that they would not be bringing charges for Greene’s death in the wake of Hollingsworth’s death and failing to prove the troopers acted “willfully.”
“There’s no closure here,” Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, told AP at the time. “I knew it was coming. They’re just pouring sugar on s——.”
Around the same time, the Justice Department had reportedly found that the Louisiana State Police engaged in a statewide pattern of excessive force during arrests and vehicle pursuits. However, the DOJ under President Donald Trump later rescinded these findings.
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