State Trooper Suspended Over Girls' Deaths

A Louisiana State Trooper who rear-ended a vehicle in Ouachita Parish in October 2020 that resulted in the deaths of two children received a suspension for his actions. Trooper Caleb Reeves was traveling on Hwy 165, when for reasons still unexplained, ran his state trooper vehicle into a vehicle driven by 42-year-old Kenneth Lindsey of Monroe. The impact from the rear-end collision of the trooper's vehicle caused Lindsey's car to rotate (spin around), hitting a metal post on the rear passengers' side of Lindsey's vehicle. 18-year-old Kajenne Lindsey and 11-year-old An-Janne Lindsey were sitting in the back seat of Lindsey's car when the crash happened. Kenneth Lindsey and another passenger were injured; Reeves did not appear to be injured. Reeves is also the son of retired superintendent of LSP Col. Kevin Reeves, who left the agency under a cloud of controversies. Reeves was never formally charged with any vehicular citations even though he caused the accident. In a statement released by LSP, Reeves was given what the agency called the "maximum" penalty of a 720-hour suspension without pay that started on April 14, 2021, and ends on August 9, 2021. A statement that appears to absolve Trooper Reeves of any kind of negligence from all governmental agencies that are a police agency will probably bring small comfort to the Lindsey family. Instead of addressing the actions of Trooper Reeves outright in its statement, the agency "felt the need" to inform the public that Reeves would be limited to making overtime and vehicle use. Reeves would also have to "successfully complete" additional training in remedial driving courses and patrol operations. The agency appeared to say that Reeves "may have been at fault as the cause" of the accident, without explicitly saying that Reeves was the cause. In other words, LSP appears not to be taking responsibility for the actions of one of its own.

From the beginning of when the accident became public, LSP held an investigation that did not reveal any transparency to the public of exactly how the accident occurred and who was really at fault. The one part of the statement that appeared to directly implicate Reeves for his actions was a mention that the disciplinary action against him, was "towards correcting conduct" to ensure that Trooper Reeves can "safely perform" his duties upon his return to work. The only mention of anything remotely close to the deaths of Kajenne and An-Janne Lindsey, was that, this tragic loss of life as a result of this incident, "will never be forgotten." Nothing about the pain, suffering, and grief that the Lindsey family went through and the lifetime of pain they will feel reliving that awful day. Elsewhere in the statement, LSP said that, while Troopers reinforce the importance of driver safety and vigilance, human error, driver distraction, and/or driving conditions can result in preventable motor vehicles crashes. Is LSP saying that the accident caused by Trooper Reeves, could have been avoided? That is a question that the public would like to know if we are talking about police accountability.

One has to wonder if LSP is waiting for some charges to be filed against Reeves, since all that may happen to him is a four-month suspension. He gets to return to duty, albeit with some restrictions, but what happens in the long run? We must not lose the fact that two young people lose their lives. Will Reeves be assigned fault legally for his actions. Was there ever a criminal investigation? Will the public ever know "all of the facts" and what led LSP to "focus" more on the career of Trooper Reeves and not talk more about the loss of life of two innocent Ouachita citizens? Is this another example of the police "protecting" one of its own? No one took the life of a police officer, just quite the opposite. Kajenne and An-Janne Lindsey are without justice if the system leaves things the way they are now. Where is the justice?