A federal judge has cleared two former Louisville police officers, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, of felony charges in connection to Breonna Taylor’s death and instead faulted Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for her fatal shooting. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland had previously announced federal charges against Jaynes and Meany, accusing them of falsifying part of the warrant that led to the fatal police raid of Taylor’s apartment. The judge declared that Walker’s actions in firing a shot at the police were the legal cause of Taylor’s death, not the warrant that was used for the raid.
The city of Louisville agreed to pay Walker $2 million to settle lawsuits filed in state and federal court as protests against police brutality swept the nation following George Floyd’s death. When police executed a drug warrant at Taylor’s apartment in March 2020, Walker fired a shot, believing an intruder was entering. In response, officers returned fire, killing Taylor. The judge determined that Walker’s actions, not the warrantless entry, were the legal cause of Taylor’s death. Despite the indictment’s allegations that Jaynes and Meany set off events leading to Taylor’s death, the judge ruled that Walker disrupted these events when he fired at the police.
The judge reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors. However, he did not dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes or a charge against Meany for making false statements to FBI investigators. Jaynes and Meany’s attorneys expressed their satisfaction with the court’s ruling, while Taylor’s family stated their disagreement with the decision and expressed their intent to continue fighting for justice for Breonna Taylor. The Justice Department is reviewing the judge’s decision and evaluating next steps, including a potential appeal.
A third former officer involved in the case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and is expected to testify against Jaynes and Meany at their trials. Federal prosecutors alleged that Jaynes, who drafted the warrant for the raid on Taylor’s apartment, had falsely claimed to Goodlett that a drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor’s address, even though this was false. Goodlett then added this information to the warrant before it was served. A fourth former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with endangering Taylor, Walker, and their neighbors when he fired into Taylor’s windows.
Hankison was acquitted on charges of wanton endangerment in 2022, and a federal trial on alleged civil rights violations ended in a hung jury. Hankison is scheduled to be retried on those charges in October. The Justice Department is reportedly waiting for the outcome of Hankison’s retrial before proceeding to schedule the trial of Jaynes and Meany. FBI ballistics determined that former Detective Myles Cosgrove likely fired the shot that killed Taylor. Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who were not indicted by a state grand jury or the FBI investigation, were not charged in connection to Taylor’s death.
