A federal judge has dismissed major felony charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson ruled that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a shot at police during the raid, were the legal cause of her death rather than the allegedly falsified warrant.
The ruling was issued on Tuesday and significantly reduced the severity of the charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sergeant Kyle Meany.
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Both had been charged with civil rights violations that could have resulted in life sentences. However, Simpson’s decision downgraded these charges to misdemeanors.
The federal charges against Jaynes and Meany were initially brought forward in 2022 by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during a highly publicized visit to Louisville.
Garland accused the officers, who were not present at Taylor’s apartment during the raid, of knowingly falsifying part of the warrant, thereby putting Taylor in a perilous situation by sending armed officers to her home.
Simpson, however, wrote in his ruling that “there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.” He concluded that Walker’s actions—firing at officers—were the proximate cause of the fatal shooting. “While the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a series of events that ended in Taylor’s death, it also alleges that (Walker) disrupted those events when he decided to open fire,” Simpson stated.
On the night of March 13, 2020, Louisville police officers executed a no-knock warrant at Taylor’s apartment as part of a narcotics investigation. Allegedly believing intruders were breaking in, Walker fired a shot that struck an officer in the leg. The officers then returned fire, killing Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, in her hallway.
Walker was initially charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but those charges were later dropped after his attorneys argued that he did not know he was firing at police officers.
Despite the ruling, the judge declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to investigators.
The decision has prompted strong reactions from Taylor’s family, who expressed their disappointment in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Obviously we are devastated at the moment by the judge’s ruling with which we disagree and are just trying to process everything,” the family said.
They added that prosecutors have informed them of plans to appeal the ruling. “The only thing we can do at this point is continue to be patient … we will continue to fight until we get full justice for Breonna Taylor,” the statement read.
The U.S. Department of Justice also responded to the ruling, stating in an email that it is “reviewing the judge’s decision and assessing next steps.”
In the broader investigation surrounding the case, a third former officer, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a conspiracy charge and is expected to testify against Jaynes and Meany in their upcoming trials.
Federal prosecutors have alleged that Jaynes, who was responsible for drafting the warrant for Taylor’s apartment, falsely claimed to have verified that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at her address.
If you want to know why police officers are overwhelmingly supporting Trump.
⬇️It’s this kind of BS⬇️
•The Biden-Harris DOJ found that the Breonna Taylor shooting was 100% legal.
•But. Kamala will defame the involved cops in order to pander to Crump. pic.twitter.com/FKEEMsP0hP
— police.law.news (@policelawnews) August 14, 2024
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