Felony charges dismissed against 2 former Louisville officers charged in the Breonna Taylor raid

(CNN) — A federal judge dismissed felony charges Thursday against two former Louisville Metro Police Department detectives who worked on the search warrant in the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor’s home.

Motions to dismiss other charges were denied.

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot and killed in her apartment during a flawed forced-entry raid in the early hours of March 13, 2020. Taylor, along with Atatiana Jefferson and Sonya Massey, were among a group of Black women killed in their own homes by law enforcement in recent years – a group that continues to expand.

Louisville detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany were federally charged in 2022 with submitting a false affidavit to search Taylor’s home ahead of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s raid, then working together to create a “false cover story in an attempt to escape responsibility for their roles in preparing the warrant affidavit that contained false information,” according to court documents. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.

US District Court Judge Charles Simpson ruled Thursday that the decision by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, to fire his gun when officers burst into the home was “the legal cause of Taylor’s death” – rather than warrantless entry, according to court documents. After Walker fired the shot, thinking the officers were intruders, a volley of gunfire came from police, and Taylor was shot multiple times.

“There is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death,” the court ruled.

“We are [very] pleased by the Court’s ruling,” Kyle Meany’s attorney Brian Butler told CNN via email.

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.”

While the former officers were charged with using a dangerous weapon to deprive Taylor of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search, Simpson’s order said it has not been proven the “Execution Team used their firearms for the purpose of subjecting Taylor to the search.”

With the use-of-a-dangerous-weapon language struck by the judge, the charge becomes a misdemeanor punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment for no more than one year, according to court documents.

When reached for comment about the judge’s decision, a Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency is reviewing the decision and assessing next steps.

CNN has reached out to the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, an attorney representing Taylor’s family and an attorney representing Jaynes for comment.

Taylor was among a series of Black people killed by law enforcement – including George Floyd in Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia – whose deaths sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 calling for police reform.

“The tragedy of Breonna Taylor’s death and the gravity of her family’s grief are not lost on this Court,” court documents said.

Meany still faces one charge of false statement to federal investigators, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Jaynes faces charges of falsification of records in a federal investigation and conspiracy to falsify records and witness tampering. If convicted, Jaynes could be sentenced to a total of 40 years.

Jaynes, who had written the search warrant for the raid on Taylor’s home, was fired in 2021 for “failing to complete a Search Warrant Operations Plan form” and being untruthful about verifying that Taylor’s previous boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, had been receiving packages at Taylor’s home, according to a copy of his termination letter obtained by CNN.

Meany was terminated from the department in 2022. Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields released a statement at the time saying, “I fully respect the judicial process and realize Sergeant Meany has yet to be heard before a jury of his peers. That being said, he is facing multiple federal charges after a lengthy investigation by the DOJ.”

Shields, who was hired to lead the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department months after the death of Taylor, stepped down as police chief at the beginning of 2023.

Brett Hankison, another former Louisville detective federally charged in connection with Taylor’s death, will face a new civil rights trial in October after a jury was deadlocked in his initial trial. Prosecutors alleged Hankison used unjustified force the night Taylor was killed and violated her civil rights and those of her boyfriend and next-door neighbors. He could face life in prison if found guilty.

Ex-detective Kelly Hannah Goodlett pleaded guilty in federal court in 2022 to conspiring to falsify an affidavit for a warrant to search Taylor’s home and to covering up the false document by lying to investigators. Goodlett has yet to be sentenced.

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