The Daily Populous Saturday August 24th, 2024 morning edition
Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by RaffyGiraffy

A federal judge has thrown out major felony charges against two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led police to Breonna Taylor's door before they fatally shot her.

U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson's ruling declared that the actions of Taylor's boyfriend, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.

Federal charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany were announced by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022 during a high-profile visit to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present at the raid, of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant and put Taylor in a dangerous situation by sending armed officers to her apartment.

But Simpson wrote in the Tuesday ruling that "there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor's death." Simpson's ruling effectively reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.

This undated photo shows Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. Photo provided by Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar via AP

The judge declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making 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 in the leg. Walker said he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her hallway.

Simpson concluded that Walker's "conduct became the proximate, or legal, cause of Taylor's death."

"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" on the police, Simpson wrote.

Walker was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but that charge was later dropped after his attorneys argued Walker didn't know he was firing at police.

Breonna Taylor and Kenneth Walker. CBS News

A U.S. Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that the department is reviewing the judge's decision and assessing next steps.

A third former officer charged in the federal warrant case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a conspiracy charge and is expected to testify against Jaynes and Meany at their trials.

Federal prosecutors alleged Jaynes, who drew up the Taylor warrant, had claimed to Goodlett days before the warrant was served that he had "verified" from a postal inspector that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor's apartment. But Goodlett knew that was false and told Jaynes the warrant did not yet have enough information connecting Taylor to criminal activity, prosecutors said. She added a paragraph saying the suspected drug dealer was using Taylor's apartment as his current address, according to court records.

Two months later, when the Taylor shooting was attracting national headlines, Jaynes and Goodlett met in Jaynes' garage to "get on the same page" before Jaynes talked to investigators about the Taylor warrant, court records said.

A fourth former officer, Brett Hankison, was also charged by federal prosecutors in 2022 with endangering the lives of Taylor, Walker and some of her neighbors when he fired into Taylor's windows. A trial last year ended with a hung jury, but Hankison is schedule to be retried on those charges in October.

In 2022, the city of Louisville agreed to pay $2 million to settle lawsuits filed by Kenneth Walker in federal and state court.

In 2020, "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King asked Walker: "What does justice look like for you, for Breonna Taylor?"

"Breonna Taylor sitting right here next to me," Walker said. "That's the only justice for me."

gnome08 on August 23rd, 2024 at 17:49 UTC »

This is insanity. He never would have fired a shot if the police didn't bust into the home with a fraudulent no knock warrant.

> According to the plea agreement, Goodlett acknowledged that she helped another LMPD detective, and their supervisor obtain a warrant to search Taylor’s home, despite knowing that the officers lacked probable cause to do so. To establish probable cause, information in an affidavit accompanying a search warrant must be truthful and timely. Goodlett admitted that she knew that the affidavit in support of the warrant to search Taylor’s home was false, misleading and stale.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-louisville-kentucky-police-detective-pleads-guilty-federal-crime-related-death-breonna

The cops used a bad warrant to bust into a couple's home without announcing themselves. They killed an innocent woman. And now are arguing the boyfriend who shot at an unknown intruder in his family's home in self defense is the one responsible for killing his girlfriend.

This is fucked up even for american cops.

Realsorceror on August 23rd, 2024 at 17:16 UTC »

This is an incredibly detrimental ruling. Not only for the boyfriend and family, but possibly for all similar cases. If the cops break into your home, whether they have a warrant or are even at the right address, you have no right to defend yourself. They may perform any action up to and including killing you. And what are you supposed to do in an actual break in where someone pretends to be the cops? I guess you just get robbed because you can’t risk them being real cops?

windmill-tilting on August 23rd, 2024 at 16:53 UTC »

So,no 2A rights, either.