How La. Trooper avoided jail time in fatal arrest of Ronald Greene

A retired Louisiana state trooper will not serve any prison time death by an officer of a 49-year-old black motorist, Ronald Greenwho cried on body camera footage ‘I’m your brother! I’m scared!” like six soldiers tased, punched, dragged and beaten him until he stopped breathing.

On Monday, Oct. 28, Kory York pleaded no contest to eight counts of simple battery in exchange for a six-month suspended sentence and one year of probation, his attorney Mike Small confirmed to PEOPLE. He was previously charged with negligent homicide and two felonies.

“The result is a total victory for Mr. York!” Small wrote in an email to PEOPLE.

The so-called “nolo contendere plea” conviction will be inadmissible in the pending wrongful death lawsuit filed by Greene’s family and will allow him to keep his $83,000-a-year pension, Small said.

Still York’s belief is the first among five troopers charged in the Union Parish, La., case, with only one trooper yet to be tried, according to the Associated Press. (A sixth trooper, Christopher Clay Hollingsworth, died in 2020, after a single-vehicle accident just hours after he was told he would be fired.)

Small says York will “testify truthfully” in the last remaining trial if subpoenaed, but that he has not entered into an agreement with prosecutors as part of his plea deal.

The troopers’ cases have developed according to an ongoing ‘pattern or practice’ research in the Louisiana State Police” by the Department of Justice to determine whether the department “uses excessive force and whether it engages in racially discriminatory policing.”

PEOPLE reached out to federal authorities for an update on the investigation, which they announced in June 2022. Lester Duhé, press secretary for Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office, did not immediately answer PEOPLE’s many questions about the investigation, including whether federal government authorities planned to file charges.

State authorities originally told Greene’s grieving family that he had died in a high-speed car crash, and state police filed a crash report without any reference to the troop, according to the AP, which notes that an emergency room doctor quickly questioned their claims. .

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Then, two years after Greene’s death, the AP obtained body camera footage, in which the outlet reported that the six troopers tased him, placed him in a chokehold and cursed at him, while Hollingsworth hit him in the head with a flashlight and bragged that he had “beat the ever-living bastard out of him.”

In the footage, York – who previously faced the most serious charges – is shown dragging Greene by his ankle cuffs, holding him handcuffed and face down for several minutes, shouting: “Shut up” and “Lie down your f– —- belly like I told you!” Greene eventually stopped breathing, according to the AP, which reported that York was briefly suspended — for 50 hours — for his part in the arrest.

But more than five years after Greene’s death, the 49-year-old’s cause of death remains murky.

In an autopsy report obtained by the AP, the coroner noted several contributing factors: repeated tasing by the officers, physical struggle, restraint, blunt force injuries and “complications of cocaine use.”

Ultimately, a forensic pathologist failed to specify the primary contributing factor, with resulting uncertainty leading according to York’s AP.

PEOPLE contacted District Attorney John Belton with a series of questions about the case and to comment on whether he believed justice had been served. Belton — who declined to answer the same question from the AP — had not responded to the Oct. 29 request by publication on Oct. 30.

But Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, was unequivocal in her opinion as she addressed the judge during Monday’s sentencing, as reported by the AP.

“This shouldn’t end today,” Hardin said. ‘It’s wrong. It’s unfair.”