Judge rules Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend caused her death, throws out major charges against ex-Louisville officers

Two former Louisville cops are accused of fabricating a warrant that sent police to Breonna Taylor’s home before they tragically shot her. A federal court has dismissed the serious criminal charges against them.

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.

During a highly publicized visit to Louisville in 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal charges against former Sgt. Kyle Meany and Detective Joshua Jaynes of the Louisville Police Department.

Garland charged 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.

The judge denied the dismissal of a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of providing false statements to investigators.

 

In March 2020, when police broke down Taylor’s door on a drug warrant, Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, fired a shot, wounding an officer in the leg. Walker claimed he thought an intruder was going to burst in.

Officers then returned fire, killing Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her hallway. Simpson came to the conclusion 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 said.

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

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.

In 2022, federal prosecutors also accused Brett Hankison, a fourth former officer, with putting Taylor, Walker, and a few of her neighbors in danger by firing into Taylor’s windows. Hankison is set to face same charges again in October following a hung jury verdict in his last trial that concluded last year.

In order to resolve litigation brought in both federal and state courts by Kenneth Walker, the city of Louisville agreed to pay $2 million in 2022.

“What does justice look like for you, for Breonna Taylor?” was the question posed to Walker by co-host Gayle King of “CBS Mornings” in 2020.

Walker remarked, “Breonna Taylor is sitting right next to me.” I can only find justice in that way.