By JIM MUSTIAN and JAKE BLEIBERG
Associated Press
WINNSBORO, La. (AP) - Three Louisiana State Police troopers have been charged with simple battery, accused of beating a Black motorist after a chase.
Troopers Jacob Brown, Dakota DeMoss and George “Kam” Harper were charged last week in the 2020 arrest of Antonio Harris.
They boasted in text messages that the “whoopin'” would give Harris “nightmares for a long time.”
The charges come amid intensifying scrutiny of the state police over allegations of excessive force and an institutional instinct to cover it up. DeMoss and Harper were fired last year and Brown resigned.
Their attorneys declined to comment.
Also on Thursday, our media partners at The Advocate report that a former Louisiana State Police commander faces his second contempt ruling in as many days after a commission found he ignored a subpoena last month in the case of Carl Cavalier, a Black trooper who was fired for publicly criticizing the agency and leaking documents about troopers beating Black motorists.
The Louisiana State Police Commission on Thursday ruled that ex-State Police commander Col. Kevin Reeves should be held in contempt after he ignored a subpoena last month calling him to testify in an appeal hearing for Cavalier.
The panel also voted Thursday morning to hold retired Maj. Jason Turner — who headed the agency’s criminal investigations and found troopers didn’t break the law in Ronald Greene’s deadly arrest, according to a detective — as well as the current State Police administration in contempt, too.
