Louisiana State Trooper Fired After Coming Forward With Police Brutality and Racism Allegations

Carl Cavalier previously opened up to WBOK, WWL-TV, and WBRZ about the death of Ronald Greene, a Black man who died in State Police custody in 2019.

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Louisiana State Trooper who previously went public with allegations of police brutality and racism has received a notice of termination from his position. 

Carl Cavalier previously opened up to WBOK, WWL-TV (shown above), and WBRZ about the death of Ronald Greene, a Black man who died in State Police custody in 2019. Cavalier has also discussed his own treatment within the force. The 33-year-old trooper received a notice of termination from State Police Superintendent Lamar Davis this week, claiming he violated department policy for speaking out about the death.

Cavalier, who is currently serving a five-week unpaid suspension for publishing a book under a pseudonym—where he wrote about alleged hostile treatment— will officially be fired in 45 days when it takes effect. This comes after he filed a lawsuit on Sept. 30 against the Louisiana State Police, alleging that he was treated unfairly starting in 2018 over issuing a traffic ticket to a Houma police officer.

“After issuing a ticket to a narcotics officer with the Houma Police Department, Petitioner’s supervisors began subjecting all tickets and reports to additional scrutiny,” Cavalier wrote in his petition. “Including, but not limited to, watching body-worn camera video not related to use of force, requesting that incident reports be edited and/or rewritten, receiving harsh criticism over minor issues where other LSP commissioned officers were not reprimanded.”

The seven-year LSP vet said he filed an internal grievance regarding his alleged discrimination, but had to deal with transfers and demotions after the fact, according to NOLA.com

The trooper went public with his allegations after the video of the 2019 arrest of Greene began to see traction, showing Greene shocked by a stun gun, beaten, and dragged in handcuffs. An autopsy claimed the 49-year-old died of “cocaine induced agitated delirium complicated by motor vehicle collision, physical struggle, inflicted head injury, and restraint” and that lacerations on Greene’s head were “most consistent with multiple impact sites from a blunt object.”

“There are killers,” Cavalier previously said in a WWL-TV interview, “and there are people who are OK with the killers being on the job. And that’s the people who are a part of the cover up.”

Cavalier is currently amending his petition to request reinstatement, according to NOLA.com, and is seeking unspecified damages in his lawsuit. 

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