BATON ROUGE – Images leaked to WBRZ’s Chris Nakamoto show why family members of a man who died in an altercation with law enforcement are concerned about what happened.

Ronald Greene died in May 2019 when he wrecked a car he was driving at the end of a pursuit involving State Police in Union Parish.

Greene’s family filed a federal lawsuit in the wake of his death, claiming Greene died after being tazed. Family members said State Police only revealed Greene died after a vehicle crash and provided little other information.

New photos leaked to Nakamoto, though, show Greene’s body with contusions and an image taken of the vehicle he was driving after the crash show minor dents. The wounds, medial experts told WBRZ after reviewing the images, are not ones normally associated with a fender-bender.

Instead, Greene’s body appears battered, with injuries similar to that of being beaten. WBRZ has made an editorial decision to not publish the images of Greene’s body. 

State Police have not made records available related to its year-long investigation into the situation. When reached Wednesday, the local coroner in Union Parish also said files related to Greene’s death were also being withheld, alluding to the State Police investigation.

Greene’s family told WBRZ previously, there is video that shows a more violent side of the story, one more deadly than a fender-bender.

According to the lawsuit, “Two officers pinned Greene down on the ground while he screamed, 'oh my God.' Greene was moaning, begging the officers to stop and repeatedly saying, 'I'm sorry,'" the family’s lawyers wrote.

"We've spoken to people who have seen the video, and it's very difficult to watch," Attorney Lee Merritt said. "It reflects clear constitutional violations and policy violations."

WBRZ has uncovered, one trooper was put on leave: Trooper Chris Hollingsworth. Although Wednesday (Sept. 16), State Police revealed Hollingsworth was placed on leave September 9, 2020, the same day the WBRZ Investigative Unit submitted a public records request for documents and videos related to this case. Originally, State Police said the trooper was placed on leave in August.

Click here to read the initial WBRZ report, one of two recent profiles by Chris Nakamoto of alleged cover-ups at the Louisiana State Police.