Gov. Edwards rejects offer to testify at Ronald Greene hearing

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - It’s been several months since the Special Committee into the death of motorist Ronald Greene had their last hearing. But today they met again in hopes of finally hearing testimony from Governor Edwards. But to the disappointment of the committee, the governor did not appear.

A lot of anticipation was riding on today’s hearing for those who have been keeping up with this investigation since we were finally supposed to get clarification on what the governor knew and when he knew it. But right now, it looks like we’ll still have to wait for those answers.

The Special Committee, for months, has been looking into the death of Ronald Greene, who was seen brutally beaten to death at the hands of state police through body camera footage. Leaked texts alleged Governor Edwards knew about the encounter hours after it occurred but remained silent.

“My heart goes out to them, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about this,” said LSP Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis.

The committee sent Governor Edwards an invitation to testify at today’s hearing 6 days ago. But officials with the governor’s office replied in a statement over the weekend that “short notice and schedule conflicts” prevented him from attending today. Col. Lamar Davis, who was not superintendent at the time of the incident, showed up to speak yet again. He doubled down on his commitment to bring changes to the agency and how its troopers are trained.

“I’ve commissioned an organization to come in and do a top to bottom assessment of our organization. And that’s because I believe that’s what’s best. There is...nothing I can say here today that will fill the hole in their hearts,” said Col. Davis.

Greene’s mother, Mona Harding, drove all the way from Florida to make it today. Frustrated that after all this time, no one has been brought to justice.

“What’s happened with Ronnie is just a drop in the bucket. We all need to just be honest about what’s going on here. And the fact that it needs to be from the top down, you cannot have internal investigations done by those from within...you cannot investigate your own when those who are doing the investigating also have their hands stained,” Harding explained.

It was said this was likely their last meeting. However, some on the committee did say they wanted to give the governor another opportunity to testify before they wrap things up. We’ll see what happens there and if we’ll get those answers.

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