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State Police takes no action against trooper who lied about Ronald Greene body cam footage
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UPDATE: After The WBRZ Investigative Unit's story aired, Louisiana Tech said that Clary was removed from his detail with the university's football team pending the results of all investigations into Greene's death.
Read the latest here: https://www.wbrz.com/news/state-trooper-removed-from-prestigious-football-detail-following-wbrz-report
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BATON ROUGE - The highest ranking state trooper on scene the night Ronald Greene died two years ago received no discipline and no action was taken against him by Louisiana State Police internal affairs despite reports that he lied about his body camera footage.
Over the weekend, Lt. John Clary was seen by the side of LA Tech head football coach Skip Holtz as they took on Mississippi State in Starkville. Many people are questioning how he could lie about body camera footage existing and wind up in a high-profile gig on national television.
"I'm surprised, especially in light of the hurricane, that LSP is fully mobilized, and there should be some job in this state if they will keep him on duty rather than a position of honor, guarding the LA Tech football coach," former prosecutor and defense lawyer Beau Brock said.
Watch Nakamoto's report live at 6:00
The Associated Press reported this year that Clary gave a statement to detectives and denied having footage of the night Greene died. However, that lie was exposed in April when a full 30 minutes of footage emerged from Clary's body camera capturing that encounter.
Clary arrived at the scene after his trooper colleagues beat Ronald Greene following a high-speed chase in the Monroe area. When Greene exited his vehicle, he was alive and apologizing.
"I'm sorry. I'm scared," Greene is heard saying.
Once Greene was dead, a concerted coverup began at the highest of levels. Clary denied having body camera footage, and Troop F Commander John Peters wrote more than a year and a half later that he had proof that Greene died in a car crash.
A State Police spokesman said internal affairs launched an investigation into the untruthfulness, and just before Hurricane Ida, their findings were concluded. Nothing happened to Clary.
The Associated Press reported that Clary lying about the existence of body camera footage is not the only story that doesn't match up with the tapes. He claimed troopers sat Greene up and immediately held his head up so he could get a clear airway. Body camera footage shows that didn't happen.
"I'm shocked," Brock said. "It appears optically that someone in State Police must be condoning whatever happened or taking no action."
Brock said with so many questions about what happened the night Greene died, transparency is a must.
"Law enforcement has a higher duty to maintain public confidence," Brock said. "When you take an action like this and allow something like this, it flaunts the obligation of public responsibility to that public confidence."
We reached out to State Police for a statement about Clary's appearance with the LA Tech football coach.
We received the following statement.
"The administrative investigation was closed in July of 2021. No discipline was delivered as a result of the investigation. Lt. Clary remains on regular assigned patrol duties."
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