4 LMPD officers federally charged in connection to deadly Breonna Taylor raid
QUICK UPDATES:
- These LMPD officers have been federally charged: Joshua Jaynes, Brett Hankison, Kelly Goodlett and Kyle Meany.
- The offenses: Civil rights, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction.
- U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland says LMPD맥스카지노s Place Based Investigations Unit falsified the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Breonna Taylor맥스카지노s home, which resulted in her death.
- Hankison맥스카지노s charges stem from unconstitutionally excessive force when he fired upon Taylor맥스카지노s apartment.
- LMPD says termination procedures have started for Goodlett and Meany, the other two were previously fired.
More than two years later, four LMPD officers have been federally charged for civil rights violations in connection to Breonna Taylor's death.
"Breonna Taylor should be alive today," U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland said during a Thursday news conference.
The officers charged are and . (Click on their names to read their documents)
Jaynes, 40, and Meany, 35, are charged with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses for their roles in preparing and approving a false search warrant.
Goodlett was charged with conspiracy for allegedly helping lie on the warrant and cover it up.
Garland said, "Those violations resulted in Ms. Taylor's death."
Hankison, 46, is accused of unconstitutionally excessive force for shots fired the night of the raid.
What we know about each officer and their role
Meany was an LMPD sergeant overseeing the Placed Based Investigations unit, which was conducting a drug investigation that night in March 2020. It involved five warrants -- one of which was Taylor's.
Garland says Meany signed off on Taylor's warrant, which was drafted by Jaynes.
According to the DOJ, the warrants created a dangerous situation for both the officers and those at Taylor's apartment, and that both Jaynes and Meany knew that.
Meany is also accused of lying to the FBI during the investigation, saying SWAT had asked his unit to request a no-knock warrant for Taylor's apartment when they hadn't.
Goodlett, who was also a part of the PBI, allegedly helped Jaynes falsify the warrant.
The DOJ said days before the raid, Goodlett saw the draft, knowing information about packages going to Taylor's house were untrue, but never changed or objected to the info.
She then, allegedly, helped him cover that up by making false statements to investigators.
The DOJ said the two even met in a garage, and Jaynes told Goodlett they needed to "get on the same page" about their lies.
As for Hankison, he's one of three officers who fired shots the night Taylor died. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Clarke says he willfully used unconstitutionally excessive force when he fired 10 shots, five of which went through a door he couldn't see through.
Hankison was the only officer initially charged, but he was acquitted earlier this year by a jury.
Jaynes and Hankison have already been fired from the department, and LMPD said Thursday that termination procedures have begun for Goodlett and Meany.
As of 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Jaynes and Meany were already out of jail. Hankison remains in custody.
Goodlett's status is unclear, but is also the only of three to not to be indicted. Her charge comes in the form of "information," which could indicate that she's cooperating with the department of justice. It is unclear whether she's taken some sort of plea agreement.
She has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 12.
As for any other officers, Garland said none of the officers responding to the raid were involved in making the warrant, so they are not at fault.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office continues to take criticism for lack of charges in the case. His investigation focused on the officers who fired shots that night, and whether they were justified in their use of force, rather than the events that led up to the raid.
More background on the raid
Taylor's apartment was raided on March 13, 2020, as part of a larger drug investigation.
The 26-year-old was at home with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when they heard knocking at the door.
Walker said Taylor yelled to see who it was prior to their entry, but got no answer. Police at the scene say they announced themselves.
Once in the hallway, plainclothes detectives burst open the front door and gunfire rang out.
Walker, who was a lawful gun owner, fired a shot first and Sgt. Jon Mattingly was hit in the leg. Taylor was shot multiple times to her death. In all, 22 shots were fired by police.
Taylor's death sparked months of protests across Louisville, and added fuel to a nationwide movement around other killings of Black people by police, like George Floyd.
More on Jaynes and the warrant
As said, Jaynes is accused of lying on the affidavit.
Jaynes wrote that he verified through a U.S. postal inspector a suspected drug dealer, Jamarcus Glover, was picking up packages at Taylor's apartment. But he did not personally verify that information.
He has said that he relied on the information provided by Sgt. Jon Mattingly, another officer there the night of the raid.
We learned from the internal investigation that Mattingly told Jaynes that Glover was not receiving suspicious packages there, but Jaynes still wrote down Glover had received parcels at Taylor's home in the affidavit and implied they were indicative of drug trafficking.
He later clarified to investigators that he meant "any" parcels, not just "suspicious" ones.
"Um, was it 맥스카지노 it 맥스카지노 the way that you worded that specific bullet point in your affidavit, was it your intent to mislead the 맥스카지노 the reviewing judge?" a PIU investigator asked in May 2020.
"No, not at all. And like I said, I could have 맥스카지노 I 맥스카지노 I could have worded a little bit differently in there. But I try to be as 맥스카지노 as (unintelligible) as detailed. Or sometimes it's good to be not as detailed," Jaynes replied.
But the Public Integrity Unit interviewed two Shively police officers who refuted Jaynes' account, saying they told several LMPD officers no packages were being delivered there.