SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – All four Shreveport police officers, Treona McCarter, Brian Ross, D’Marea Johnson, and James LeClare, charged in the death of Tommy McGlasson have been acquitted.
This morning, Caddo District Court Judge Chris Victory granted the motions made by the defense for each of the four former officers late Thursday afternoon. The defense made the request immediately after the state rested his case late Thursday afternoon after four days of testimony from 28 witnesses.
There were tears of relief and hugs among the defense team. McGlothen’s family sat in stunned silence.
McGlothen died in the backseat of a Shreveport police vehicle following a struggle with officers Treona McCarter, Brian Ross, D’Marea Johnson, and James LeClare. The four were charged with malfeasance in office and negligent homicide related to McGlothen’s death.
Defense attorneys for the four officers told the judge that the state failed to make its case on any of the charges. Among other things, they noted that the state never called the lead detective investigating the case to the stand and how in all his years as a prosecutor, he had never seen the state hire an outside expert to contradict their own coroner.
