FARMERVILLE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana state trooper pleaded no contest Monday to significantly reduced charges that spare him jail time in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene, the first conviction of any kind in a prolonged police brutality case that once prompted national outrage.
Kory York had faced the most serious charges of five officers indicted in the case two years ago after body-camera video captured him dragging Greene by his ankle shackles and forcing him to lie cuffed and facedown before he stopped breathing.
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Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
FILE - This photo provided by the Louisiana State Police shows Master Trooper Kory York in Monroe, La., on May 10, 2019, after troopers punched, dragged and stunned Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
FILE — This image from video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. (Lt. John Clary/Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
But instead of the original felony charges of negligent homicide and malfeasance, York pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in exchange for a year of probation and an agreement to testify against the lone officer still facing trial.
The plea happened despite vehement objections from Greene's family, which said they had been misled about the terms of the deal and robbed of the chance to see the felony charges play out at trial.
“My family is a victim and we should have more of a say,” said Greene's mother, Mona Hardin, who refused to sign off on the last-minute deal that prosecutors pushed amid fears York would be acquitted in a conservative corner of the state.
“This shouldn’t end today,” she told the packed courtroom. "It's wrong. It's unfair.”
District Attorney John Belton declined to say Monday whether justice had been served in Greene's death, noting the case remains open.
York’s no-contest plea is effectively equivalent to a guilty plea but the conviction can’t be used in the wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Greene’s family. York, 51, also will retain his nearly $83,000-a-year pension following his August retirement from the Louisiana State Police.
“This is clearly a victory for Kory York," said his attorney Mike Small. “It’s not an admission of guilt."
It was a dramatic anticlimax for a case once shrouded in scandal, including allegations of a state police cover-up and institutional racism that ignited two still-unresolved federal investigations. In the fever pitch, then-Gov. John Bel Edwards called Greene’s treatment criminal and racist, and Republican lawmakers threatened to impeach the Democrat over his handling of the case only to abandon a legislative inquiry without even questioning him.
Greene’s May 2019 death was suspicious from the outset when state authorities told grieving relatives that he died in a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase near Monroe — an account immediately questioned by an emergency room doctor. Still, a state police crash report omitted any mention of troopers using force and 462 days passed before the state police launched an internal investigation. All the while, officials from Edwards on down refused to release the body-camera video.
But in 2021 The Associated Press obtained and published the footage showing troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared!”
Troopers repeatedly jolted him with stun guns, with one wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face. One trooper struck Greene in the head with a flashlight and was recorded bragging that he “beat the ever-living f--- out of him.” That trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, was considered the most culpable of the half-dozen officers involved in the arrest but died in a single-vehicle crash in 2020 hours after he learned he would be fired.
York could be seen on the video pressing the shackled, heavyset Greene facedown to the ground for several minutes and repeatedly ordering him to “shut up” and “lay on your f------ belly like I told you to!” Experts said such prone restraint could have dangerously restricted Greene’s breathing.
Though state police suspended York for 50 hours for his role in Greene’s arrest, investigators were never able to pinpoint what caused the 49-year-old’s death. Autopsy reports cited several contributing factors, including troopers’ repeated use of a stun gun, physical struggle, prone restraint, blunt-force injury and “complications of cocaine use,” with a forensic pathologist declining to identify which was most lethal.
That ambiguity prompted prosecutors last month to dismiss the negligent homicide charge against York and seek to negotiate a plea deal to the remaining felony malfeasance counts against him.
Greene's death was among several beatings of Black men by Louisiana troopers that prompted the U.S. Justice Department to open an ongoing civil rights investigation into the state police’s use of force. But federal prosecutors still have not said whether they will file charges in the case following a years-long FBI investigation.
Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org.
Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
Supporters and family members of Ronald Greene gathered outside the Union Parish Courthouse, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in Farmerville, La., following a plea hearing and sentencing for former state trooper Kory York. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, objected to the plea as “unfair” and urged a judge to reject it. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)
FILE - This photo provided by the Louisiana State Police shows Master Trooper Kory York in Monroe, La., on May 10, 2019, after troopers punched, dragged and stunned Black motorist Ronald Greene during his fatal 2019 arrest. (Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
FILE — This image from video from Louisiana state trooper Lt. John Clary's body-worn camera shows trooper Kory York standing over Ronald Greene on his stomach on May 10, 2019, outside of Monroe, La. (Lt. John Clary/Louisiana State Police via AP, File)
Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be pivotal in deciding the winner of next week's election.
Trump on Sunday held a rally at Madison Square Garden where several speakers made racist and crude remarks, including comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage.” Shortly after those remarks, Puerto Rican reggaeton artist Bad Bunny endorsed Harris.
Trump plans to hold a rally in Atlanta Monday evening while Harris will make several campaign stops in Michigan, including a rally with singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest:
Vice President Kamala Harris told an audience at a semiconductor facility in Saginaw County, Michigan, on Monday that their work represents “the best of who we are as a country,” balancing the traditions of the nation and the desire to push technology forward.
“When we understand who we are as a nation, we take great pride in being a leader on so many things. And we have a tradition of that,” she said at the Hemlock Semiconductor facility in central Michigan. “But I think that what we know as Americans is that we cannot rest on tradition.”
Harris added: “We have to constantly be on top of what is happening, what is current, and investing in the industries of the future, as well as honoring the traditions and the industries that have built up America’s economy.”
Hemlock Semiconductor recently received a $325 million federal grant for a new factory.
The Republican nominee for president will deliver what his campaign is calling “remarks to the press” at 10 a.m. at his private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. It is unclear whether the former president will take questions.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A comic calling Puerto Rico garbage before a packed Donald Trump rally in New York was the latest humiliation for an island territory that has long suffered from mistreatment, residents said Monday in expressions of fury that could affect the presidential election.
Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland. Phones across the island of 3.2 million people were ringing minutes after the speaker derided the U.S. territory Sunday night, and they still buzzed Monday.
▶ Read more about Puerto Ricans’ response to the remarks
President Joe Biden said it was “totally inappropriate” for Elon Musk to pledge to give away $1 million a day to voters for signing his political action committee’s petition. The billionaire and owner of the social platform X has gone all-in on Republican Donald Trump.
The giveaway has raised questions and alarms among some election experts who say it is a violation of the law to link a cash handout to signing a petition that also requires a person to be registered to vote.
“I think it’s totally inappropriate,” he said in Delaware where he just voted.
The Democratic and Republican presidential tickets are heading into the final week of campaigning with a familiar strategy: Rally supporters in the handful of states that will decide the race.
Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin have received the most attention from Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and their running mates since the Labor Day weekend — the point when campaigning traditionally intensifies.
The Democratic ticket has been more active over the past two weeks, according to Associated Press tracking of the campaigns’ public events.
From Oct. 14 through this past weekend, Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held 42 campaign events over the seven swing states while Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, held 25.
There has been a stark contrast in Wisconsin: Harris and Walz visited the state eight times between Oct. 14 and Sunday, compared to just one visit by Trump and Vance during that span. The Republicans are headed back to Wisconsin this week, including a rally in Milwaukee.
The AP tracker shows that from Labor Day through this past weekend both campaigns have made more visits to Pennsylvania (43) than to Georgia, Arizona and Nevada combined (40). See where the campaigns have been traveling with this AP interactive map.
In response to Donald Trump’s New York rally where speakers made crude and racist insults, President Joe Biden said: “It’s simply embarrassing. That’s why this election is so important.”
Biden was speaking after he voted Monday in Delaware.
“Most of the presidential scholars I’ve spoken to talk about the single most consequential thing about a president is character. Character,” Biden said. “And he puts that in question every time he opens his mouth.”
President Joe Biden waited in line for about 40 minutes Monday before he cast his ballot.
He handed his identification to the election worker, who had him sign and then announced: “Joseph Biden now voting.”
As Biden voted behind a black drape, some first-time voters were announced and the room erupted in cheers for them.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, says she won’t vote for him or Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in the general election.
“I want to vote for somebody and not against someone,” she told the Anchorage Daily News. She added she was disappointed with the choices from both major parties.
Murkowski voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection and also called for him to resign. She said she didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020.
“I am going to be voting for someone and hopefully I will feel good about that, even knowing that that individual probably is not going to be in the winner column,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski declined to say who would get her vote.
There are six other candidates on the Alaska ballot for president, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. even though he dropped out of the race in August.
When President Joe Biden arrived at the polling place at the Delaware Department of Elections on Monday, there was a long line of people lined up waiting to vote.
He chatted with some and was pushing an older woman in a wheelchair who was ahead of him in line. They were all casting ballots early for the Nov. 5 election.
Kamala Harris said Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square helped prove her point about the stakes of the election.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Harris said the Sunday event “really highlighted the point that I’ve been making throughout this campaign,” which is that Trump is “fixated on his grievances, on himself, and on dividing our country, and it is not in any way something that will strengthen the American family, the American worker.”
Harris plans to deliver her closing argument on Tuesday in Washington.
“There’s a big difference between he and I,” she said.
“Let’s go vote,” he told reporters Monday after breakfast with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who has served as Delaware’s lone House member since 2017 and is running for U.S. Senate.
Donald Trump will be holding his election night party in Florida at the Palm Beach Convention Center.
The venue, announced by his campaign on Monday, is not far from his Mar-a-Lago club and residence.
WASHINGTON — American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the election results and its broader implications for democracy, according to a new poll.
The findings of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, speak to persistent concerns about the fragility of the world’s oldest democracy, nearly four years after former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results inspired a mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about 1 in 3 voters say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.
▶ Read more about the latest AP-NORC poll
President Joe Biden swung by a breakfast spot near his home outside Wilmington, Delaware, with a longtime ally who is vying to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.
The president and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester headed to The Legend Restaurant & Bakery in New Castle. Blunt Rochester, who has served as Delaware’s lone House member since 2017, is trying to become the first Black woman elected to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate.
Biden formally endorsed Blunt Rochester in a video released on Sunday evening by the lawmaker’s campaign. He is set to cast his early-vote ballot later Monday before heading back to Washington.
As former President Donald Trump continues to attack Vice President Kamala Harris with deeply personal insults, he has also suggested she should take a cognitive test.
In an interview with CBS News, Harris said “sure” when asked whether she’d take such a test.
“I would challenge him to take the same one,” Harris said. “I think he actually is increasingly unstable and unhinged and has resorted to name-calling because he actually has no plan for the American people.”
It’s the same line Trump used when President Joe Biden was still running for president as questions swirled about the 81-year-old’s age and mental acuity following his disastrous debate performance in June.
Trump is 78 and is now the oldest candidate to run for office.
President Joe Biden plans to cast an early ballot on Monday near his home outside Wilmington, Delaware, according to the White House.
For all but a few years since 1970, Biden has held office or has been running for one during election season. But this year, his hopes lie with a newer generation of Democrats, including three on the Delaware ballot looking to make history.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who Biden endorsed after dropping out of the presidential race in July, is vying to become the first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to serve as president.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Sarah McBride is looking to become the first openly transgender candidate to be elected to the U.S. House.
McBride is aiming to succeed Democrat Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, who is looking to become Delaware’s first Black woman to win the U.S. Senate seat. She has served as Delaware’s lone representative in the House since 2017.
Biden on Sunday evening formally endorsed Blunt Rochester, cutting a video for her campaign in which he called her “Delaware through and through.”
Kamala Harris says she has three immediate legislative priorities when she takes office, should she be elected president.
In an interview with CBS News, Harris said her first priority will be reducing costs for Americans with an expanded child tax credit and efforts to reduce the cost of groceries and make homes more affordable. The second is to work to restore abortion rights protections and the third will be to work on passage of a border security bill.
Harris and Republican Donald Trump are in a tight race for the White House.
Kamala Harris will focus on manufacturing jobs Monday as she heads back to Michigan.
She’s set to visit Corning’s Hemlock Semiconductor Next Gen Facility. The Saginaw company received a $325 million investment from the CHIPS and Science Act, legislation passed by the Biden administration.
She’s then touring a labor training facility in Macomb County. The election is in a week and one day, and Harris is hoping to appeal to many different voting blocs in the battleground states, in a dead-heat race with Donald Trump. On Tuesday she’ll give a closing speech in Washington.
Uncertainty reigns entering the final full week of the 2024 campaign with Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump locked in a fiercely competitive presidential contest. What happens in the coming days will be pivotal in deciding the winner.
Read more about what we're watching this week.
President Joe Biden, left, walks with Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., after having breakfast at The Legend Restaurant & Bakery, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Del. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a community rally at the Alan Horwitz "Sixth Man" Center, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
