A federal judge has dismissed significant felony charges against two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led to the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson stated that Taylor’s death was legally caused by her boyfriend, who fired a shot at officers during the raid, rather than the allegedly flawed warrant.
The charges against ex-Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany were initially brought forward by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022, during a prominent visit to Louisville.
Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not at the scene during the raid, of knowingly falsifying parts of the warrant, thereby placing Taylor in a perilous situation by sending armed officers to her residence.
However, Simpson’s decision, issued on Tuesday, concluded that “there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.” This ruling effectively downgraded the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany from felonies, which could have resulted in life sentences, to misdemeanors.
According to CBS news The judge declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to investigators.
When police carrying a drug warrant broke down Taylor’s door in March 2020, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot that struck an officer in the leg. Walker said he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, in her hallway.
Simpson concluded that Walker’s “conduct became the proximate, or legal, cause of Taylor’s death.”
“While the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a series of events that ended in Taylor’s death, it also alleges that (Walker) disrupted those events when he decided to open fire” on the police, Simpson wrote.
Walker was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder of a police officer, but that charge was later dropped after his attorneys argued Walker didn’t know he was firing at police.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that the department is reviewing the judge’s decision and assessing next steps.
In 2022, the city of Louisville agreed to pay $2 million to settle lawsuits filed by Kenneth Walker in federal and state court.
In 2020, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King asked Walker: “What does justice look like for you, for Breonna Taylor?”
“Breonna Taylor sitting right here next to me,” Walker said. “That’s the only justice for me.”
