Why a Federal Judge Dismissed 2 Felony Charges Stemming From the Drug Raid That Killed Breonna Taylor
A federal judge recently dismissed two felony charges against two former Louisville, Kentucky, police officers who were involved in obtaining the search warrant for the 2020 drug raid that killed Breonna Taylor. In a ruling issued last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III concluded that the Justice Department had failed to allege facts sufficient to support two felony counts against former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany under 18 USC 242, which makes it a crime to “willfully” deprive someone of his constitutional rights “under color of any law.” But Simpson left in place several other misdemeanor and felony charges stemming from the no-knock warrant, which prosecutors say was not supported by probable cause.
Despite their no-knock warrant, the three plainclothes officers who approached Taylor’s door around 12:40 a.m. on March 13, 2020, banged on the door before smashing it open with a battering ram. They said they also announced themselves, although that claim was contradicted by nearly all of Taylor’s neighbors. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was in bed with her at the time. He later said he heard no announcement and had no idea that the men breaking into the apartment were police officers. Alarmed by the banging and the ensuing crash, he grabbed a handgun and fired a single shot at the intruders, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the thigh.
The three officers responded with a hail of 32 bullets, including six fired by Mattingly, 16 fired by Detective Myles Cosgrove, and 10 fired by Detective Brett Hankison, who was standing outside the apartment. Hankison fired blindly through a bedroom window and a sliding glass door, both of which were covered by blinds or curtains. Six of the rounds struck Taylor, who was unarmed and standing near Walker in a dark hallway. Investigators later concluded that Cosgrove had fired the bullet that killed Taylor.
Neither Jaynes nor Meany was involved in the raid itself. But Jaynes wrote the affidavit supporting the search warrant, and Meany, who was fired after his federal indictment, approved it. Jaynes, who was fired in December 2020 for lying in that affidavit, falsely claimed he had confirmed with a U.S. postal inspector that Taylor’s former boyfriend, suspected drug dealer Jamarcus Glover, was receiving packages at her apartment. Jaynes later contradicted that account, saying Mattingly had “nonchalantly” mentioned that Glover “just gets Amazon or mail packages there.” The packages reportedly contained shoes and clothing, consistent with what Jaynes knew about them a month before the raid. But in his affidavit, Jaynes intimated that the packages might have contained drugs or drug money. And although he was seeking a no-knock warrant, he failed to cite any evidence specific to Taylor that would have justified dispensing with the knock-and-announce rule.
An August 2022 federal indictment alleged that Jaynes and Meany “knew that the affidavit used to obtain the warrant to search Taylor’s home contained information that was false, misleading, and out-of-date; that the affidavit omitted material information; and that the officers lacked probable cause for the search.” It added that they knew “the execution of the search warrant would be carried out by armed [Louisville] officers” and “could create a dangerous situation both for those officers and for anyone who happened to be in Taylor’s home.”
Based on those allegations, the indictment charged Jaynes and Meany with “aiding and abetting” a violation of Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights, which by itself is a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year of incarceration. But the indictment added that “the offense involved the use of a dangerous weapon,” which increases the maximum sentence to 10 years, and “resulted in Taylor’s death,” making it punishable by up to life in prison or the death penalty.
The indictment also alleged that Jaynes and Meany tried to cover up the lack of probable cause for the warrant by “submitting a false Investigative Letter” and “making false statements to criminal investigators.” Based on those allegations, it char
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