ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – No one disputes that a cell phone video shows an assault. The question for viewers is: who do you think should be charged with that assault?
The incident happened on March 19, 2023, during a police response involving St. Louis County officers. Yolanda Greene, 52, can be seen putting her hands on the back and shoulder of an officer. She says she was checking on her son in the pile after she says the homeowner “…called me screaming. She said, ‘They’re going to kill your son!’”
Another angle from police bodycam shows an officer reacting to Greene as they tumble and fall to the ground. That’s when you can hear another officer calling for restraints.
“Handcuffs! Do not throw a strike! Handcuffs. Don’t throw a strike!” he says.
“He’s trying to do the right thing. He tried to stop the other officer from punching Ms. Greene in the face,” Mark Pedroli, Greene’s attorney, said.
Pedroli, who’s filed a civil lawsuit on Greene’s behalf, alleges the punching officer broke his hand in the incident. It’s a claim also reflected in the police report that says an officer suffered, “fractures to the fourth and fifth metacarpal bones in his right hand.”
The police report says this about the portion of the video where you see Greene come up behind an officer: “I saw Yolanda strike (an officer) several times in the back of his neck, head, and shoulders with what appeared to be a closed fist.”
Pedroli’s response? “This entire police report was engineered in order to tell a lie about her, so that it would justify the use of force not only against her juvenile son, but also against her.”
Pedroli adds that Greene’s son was never charged with a crime and that the initial call for trespassing did not involve the Greenes at all.
“The juvenile son of Ms. Greene, who’s at his girlfriend’s house, so he is not trespassing,” he said, adding that the homeowner confirmed this.
The St. Louis County Police Department responded, saying one video of an incident does not tell the entire story in a very active police scene.
“Ms. Greene has been charged by the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office with two counts of assault fourth-degree on a special victim (LEO) and resisting/interfering with arrest,” a police spokesperson said. “Those charges are the culmination of the police reports written, body camera footage, interviews with witnesses, suspects, and victims, and any other evidence to include medical records of our officers’ injuries.”
The St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office added in a statement, “We are aware of defense counsel’s contention that some claims made in the police report and the probable cause statement do not match subsequent video evidence. Police reports are preliminary investigative documents that seldom are admissible evidence in a criminal prosecution, and probable cause statements typically are written before all of the evidence is available. Despite any discrepancies between these documents & subsequent video evidence, we believe the evidence supports the three Class A misdemeanors… For physically interfering with a lawful arrest by police officers…”
Greene, meanwhile, says the criminal charges she’s facing cost her nursing career.
“This is my life,” she said, “This is all I know. This is my career. Like I said, I’ve been doing this 25-26 years; this is all I know how to do.”
There is no court date yet set in her criminal case. Her civil lawsuit will be discussed at a hearing in September.
