The charges represented the Justice Department’s latest effort to crack down on abuses and racial disparities in policing, following a spate of controversial police killings of black Americans. Former Louisville Metropolitan Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and current Sergeant Kyle Meany have been charged with civil rights violations and obstruction of justice for using false information to obtain the search warrant that authorized the failed March 13, 2020 raid that killed Taylor at her house. the Justice Department said. Current Detective Kelly Goodlett was charged with conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the warrant and then covering up the falsification. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register A fourth officer, former detective Brett Hankison, was charged with civil rights violations for allegedly using excessive force, U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland said. “Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Garland said at a news conference. “The Department of Justice is committed to defending and protecting the civil rights of every person in this country. That was the founding purpose of this department and remains our urgent mission.” The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was one of three that sparked a summer of protests against racial injustice and police brutality two years ago in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today was a huge step toward justice,” attorneys for the Taylor family said in a statement after the news. Louisville police on Thursday began the process of firing Meaney and Goodlett, the department said in a statement. Hankison and Janes had previously been fired from the department. The Department of Justice is also investigating whether Louisville metro government and the Louisville Police Department engaged in a pattern or practice of abusing residents’ civil rights. Protesters celebrate after it was announced that the FBI had arrested and filed civil rights charges against four current and former Louisville police officers for their roles in the 2020 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., August 4, 2022. REUTERS /Amira Karaoud read more
NO-KNOCK RAID
Louisville police were investigating alleged drug dealing when they broke down the door of Taylor’s home in a no-knock raid, prompting her boyfriend, who was legally carrying a gun, to open fire on the officers, who then fired 22 shots at apartment, killing Taylor, prosecutors said. Hankison, prosecutors said, backed away from the door, firing 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment through a window and a glass door that were covered by blinds and curtains. Hankison told a Kentucky grand jury that he opened fire as soon as the shooting started. As he saw the flashers lighting up the room, he said, he mistakenly believed one of the occupants was firing a gun at his co-workers. Instead, mostly what he heard was other police officers firing their guns. read more Prosecutors said Janes and Goodlett met in a garage days after the shooting to agree on a false story to cover the false evidence they had submitted to justify the botched raid. Attorney Stew Mathews, who represented Hankison in a trial in Jefferson County Circuit Court where he was acquitted in March of wanton endangerment, said he spoke Thursday morning with the former detective as he was on his way to surrender to the FBI. Matthews said the federal charges were similar to previous state charges Hankison had faced. As of Thursday, Hankison was the only officer facing charges in connection with the raid. “I’m sure Brett will challenge this just as he did the other indictment,” Matthews said. Attorney Thomas Clay, who represents Janes, was not immediately available for comment. It was not immediately clear if Meany and Goodlett had attorneys. Taylor’s murder, along with other high-profile 2020 killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia, sparked nationwide protests. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Scott Malone in Washington and Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Editing: Daniel Wallis and Marla Dickerson Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
