New Federal Charges Filed Against 2 Ex-Officers in Breonna Taylor Case After Previous Charges Were Dropped

Federal prosecutors filed new indictments Tuesday against two former Louisville officers accused of forgery a mandate that led police to Breonna Taylor’s door before she fatally shot her.

The indictment that supersedes the Justice Department comes weeks later a federal judge threw out felony charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany.

The new indictment includes additional allegations about how the former officers allegedly falsified the affidavit for the search warrant.

They say they both knew the affidavit they used to obtain the search warrant for Taylor’s home contained false, misleading and outdated information, omitted “material information,” and knew they lacked the requisite probable cause.

The indictment says that if the judge who signed the warrant had known that “key statements in the affidavit were false and misleading,” she would not have approved it “and there would not have been a search of Taylor’s home.”

Attorney Thomas Clay, who represents Jaynes, said the new indictment raises “new legal arguments, which we are looking into in order to file our response.” An attorney for Meany did not immediately return a message for comment Tuesday night.

Federal charges against Jaynes and Meany were announced by US Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2022. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present at the raid, of knowing they forged part of the warrant and they put Taylor in a dangerous situation by sending in armed officers. to her apartment.

When police on a drug warrant broke down Taylor’s door in March 2020, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walkerfired a shot that hit an officer in the leg. Walker said he thought an intruder had exploded. The officers responded, striking and killing Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, in the hallway.

In August, U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson said Taylor’s boyfriend’s actions were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.

Simpson wrote that “there is no direct connection between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.” Simpson’s ruling effectively reduced the civil rights charges against Jaynes and Meany, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.

The judge declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to investigators.

In November 2023, the trial was declared null and void in the civil rights lawsuit of a third former Louisville police officer in the case, ex-Det Brett Hankisonafter jurors failed to reach a verdict on two counts of disenfranchisement. Hankison was accused of firing 10 rounds through Taylor’s bedroom window and sliding glass door.

In August 2022, a fourth former Louisville officer in that case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. Goodlett helped draft the warrant that led to the deadly raid.

In 2021, in response to the Taylor, Kentucky case promulgated a law which limits when the police can use anti-knock warrants.