Judge rules Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend caused her death, dismisses some charges against ex-officers

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal choose has thrown out main felony expenses in opposition to two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led police to Breonna Taylor’s door earlier than they fatally shot her.

U.S. District Choose Charles Simpson’s ruling declared that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend, who fired a shot at police the night time of the raid, had been the authorized reason behind her demise, not a nasty warrant.

Federal expenses in opposition to former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany had been introduced by U.S. Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland in 2022 throughout a high-profile go to to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who weren’t current on the raid, of understanding they’d falsified a part of the warrant and put Taylor in a harmful scenario by sending armed officers to her residence.

However Simpson wrote within the Tuesday ruling that “there isn’t a direct hyperlink between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s demise.” Simpson’s ruling successfully lowered the civil rights violation expenses in opposition to Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a most sentence of life in jail, to misdemeanors.

The choose declined to dismiss a conspiracy cost in opposition to Jaynes and one other cost in opposition to Meany, who’s accused of constructing false statements to investigators.

When police carrying a drug warrant broke down Taylor’s door in March 2020, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot that struck an officer within the leg. Walker mentioned he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fireplace, hanging and killing Taylor, a 26-year-old Black girl, in her hallway.

Simpson concluded that Walker’s “conduct grew to become the proximate, or authorized, reason behind Taylor’s demise.”

“Whereas the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a collection of occasions that led to Taylor’s demise, it additionally alleges that (Walker) disrupted these occasions when he determined to open fireplace” on the police, Simpson wrote.

Walker was initially arrested and charged with tried homicide of a police officer, however that cost was later dropped after his attorneys argued Walker didn’t know he was firing at police.

“Clearly we’re devastated in the meanwhile by the choose’s ruling with which we disagree and are simply attempting to course of all the pieces,” Taylor’s household wrote in an announcement Friday to The Related Press. It mentioned prosecutors advised the household they plan to enchantment Simpson’s ruling.

“The one factor we will do at this level is proceed to be affected person … we are going to proceed to battle till we get full justice for Breonna Taylor.”

The U.S. Justice Division mentioned in an electronic mail that it “is reviewing the choose’s determination and assessing subsequent steps.”

A 3rd former officer charged within the federal warrant case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded responsible in 2022 to a conspiracy cost and is predicted to testify in opposition to Jaynes and Meany at their trials.

Federal prosecutors alleged Jaynes, who drew up the Taylor warrant, had claimed to Goodlett days earlier than the warrant was served that he had “verified” from a postal inspector {that a} suspected drug vendor was receiving packages at Taylor’s residence. However Goodlett knew that was false and advised Jaynes the warrant didn’t but have sufficient info connecting Taylor to legal exercise, prosecutors mentioned. She added a paragraph saying the suspected drug vendor was utilizing Taylor’s residence as his present deal with, in accordance with courtroom data.

Two months later, when the Taylor capturing was attracting nationwide headlines, Jaynes and Goodlett met in Jaynes’ storage to “get on the identical web page” earlier than Jaynes talked to investigators concerning the Taylor warrant, courtroom data mentioned.

A fourth former officer, Brett Hankison, was additionally charged by federal prosecutors in 2022 with endangering the lives of Taylor, Walker and a few of her neighbors when he fired into Taylor’s home windows. A trial final 12 months ended with a hung jury, however Hankison is schedule to be retried on these expenses in October.