On Thursday, a federal judge dropped felony charges against two ex-detectives from the Louisville Metro Police Department involved in the search warrant related to the tragic raid at Breonna Taylor’s home. However, requests to dismiss additional charges were rejected.
In 2022, Louisville detective Joshua Jaynes and Sergeant Kyle Meany faced federal charges for allegedly providing a fraudulent affidavit to secure a search warrant for Breonna Taylor’s residence prior to the police raid. Court documents revealed that they later collaborated to fabricate a misleading narrative in an effort to avoid accountability for their involvement in drafting the affidavit that included inaccurate details. If convicted, they faced the possibility of life in the slammer.
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On Thursday, US District Court Judge Charles Simpson determined that the actions of Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in discharging his firearm as officers entered their home, constituted “the legal cause of Taylor’s death,” rather than the officers’ warrantless entry. Court documents indicated that Walker, believing the officers to be intruders, fired a shot, which prompted a barrage of gunfire from the police, resulting in Taylor being struck multiple times. “There is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death,” the court ruled.
As we previously reported, in the early morning of March 13, 2020, Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, tragically lost her life when a botched forced-entry operation took place in her apartment. She was one of several Black women, including Atatiana Jefferson and Sonya Massey, who have been fatally shot in their own residences by police in recent years, a troubling trend that continues to grow.
The judge dropped felony charges against both men, saying the “alleged facts do not fit the … felony offenses as written.”
“Taylor’s death was proximately caused by the manner in which the warrant was executed,” court documents say. “[Kenneth Walker’s] decision to open fire, as alleged and argued, was the natural and probable consequence of executing the warrant at 12:45 a.m. on ‘an unsuspecting household.’ That decision prompted the return fire which hit and killed Taylor.”
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Although the former officers faced charges for employing a dangerous weapon in violation of Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches, Judge Simpson’s ruling indicated that it has not been established that the “Execution Team” intended to use their firearms to enforce the search on Taylor.
With the judge’s removal of the dangerous weapon terminology, the charge is downgraded to a misdemeanor, which could result in a fine and/or a maximum of one year in prison, as outlined in court records.
In response to the judge’s ruling, a spokesperson from the Department of Justice stated that the agency is currently evaluating the decision and considering possible actions moving forward.
