A federal judge has agreed to dismiss a portion of the most serious charge against two former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers accused of falsifying a search warrant that led to the killing of Breonna Taylor, an unarmed Black medical worker, in her apartment in 2020.
Joshua Jaynes, a former detective with the Louisville Police Department, and Kyle Meany, a former sergeant, knowingly made false statements in their application for a “no-knock” warrant to search Taylor’s home, according to the accusations.
Louisville police were investigating a man whom Taylor had previously dated, suspecting him of drug trafficking. Three officers used a battering ram to enter Taylor’s apartment after midnight, startling Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Walker, believing they were burglars, fired his gun, according to prosecutors.
In response, two officers returned fire, shooting 22 bullets and killing Taylor, who was unarmed. Police found no drugs in the apartment. Taylor’s killing sparked global protests in 2020 against the disproportionate use of violence by U.S. police against Black people.
Jaynes and Meany did not participate in the raid on Taylor’s apartment. Prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division charged both with depriving Taylor of her civil rights, including her right not to be subjected to an unreasonable search, by obtaining the search warrant on false grounds, fully aware that it would lead to armed officers storming her apartment.
The indictment emphasized that the rights violation “involved the use of a weapon and resulted in Taylor’s death,” which elevated the charge to a felony punishable by a life sentence if they were convicted.
U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson in Louisville agreed with Jaynes’ and Meany’s motion to dismiss that part of the indictment. In his Thursday ruling, Simpson wrote, “the Court finds that the warrantless entry was not the actual cause of Taylor’s death.”
Simpson explained that even if the police had obtained a valid warrant, the alleged post-midnight entry would have frightened Walker, who would have fired his gun, prompting the officers’ lethal return fire.
However, Simpson denied the defendants’ requests to dismiss the remaining charges. Both still face the charge of depriving Taylor of her rights as government officials, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison. Additionally, Jaynes faces two cover-up charges, including one for conspiring to falsify evidence to FBI agents investigating the warrant, a felony carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Meany faces a charge of making false statements to the FBI.
