Feds move to dismiss charges against officers accused of falsifying warrant in Breonna Taylor raid

Protesters participate in the Good Trouble Tuesday march for Breonna Taylor, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss the charges against two Louisville officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led police to raid Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night she was killed six years ago.

Prosecutors said in a court filing Friday that their review of the case showed the charges against former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany should be “dismissed in the interest of justice.”

Judges have twice reduced a felony charge against each officer to a misdemeanor, saying there wasn’t a direct link between the false information in the warrant and Taylor’s death. Prosecutors said after the second ruling that they had decided to drop the cases.

“We are elated with this development,” said Travis Lock, an attorney for Jaynes.

Meany’s lawyer, Michael Denbow, said he is “incredibly grateful for today’s filing.”

Meany “is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving forward with his life,” he said.

Taylor was shot to death by police when they broke down the door of her apartment while serving a no-knock drug warrant looking for a former boyfriend who no longer lived there.

Taylor’s boyfriend at the time fired at the officers, and Taylor was killed as police fired back.

Federal prosecutors under former President Joe Biden pressed charges against the officers. Under President Donald Trump, though, the Department of Justice asked that Brett Hankison, the only officer serving prison time related to Taylor’s killing, be let out of prison while he appeals his conviction.

Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said in a Facebook post that she is extremely disappointed in Trump’s Justice Department.

“Their phone call today informing me that charges against the police are being dropped while implying they have helped me is utterly disrespectful,” Palmer wrote. “This is the first time I’ve heard from them since they took over and it’s clear they have not served me or Breonna well.”

A federal judge sentenced Hankison to two years and nine months in prison and three years of supervised release for blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor’s windows on the night she was killed. None of the shots hit anyone.

Neither of the two officers who did shoot Taylor was charged, after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment.

Police found no drugs or cash inside Taylor’s apartment. The city paid a US$12 million wrongful death settlement to Taylor’s family.

The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, led to months of protests in the streets of Louisville in 2020, the same year Ahmaud Arbery was killed while jogging in Georgia and George Floyd was choked to death by an officer in Minneapolis.

The Associated Press