Breonna Taylor shooting: charges dismissed against ex-police officers for falsifying warrant | Breonna Taylor
A federal judge has dismissed charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying a warrant used to enter Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night police shot and killed her.
U.S. district judge Charles Simpson issued a one-page decision Friday dismissing charges against Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, two former police officers involved in drafting the Taylor arrest warrant.
Federal prosecutors under the Trump administration recently asked a judge to dismiss charges against the former officers “in the interests of justice.” Prosecutors noted that the court had already thrown out some felony charges against Jaynes and Meany in previous trials.
Merrick Garland, the Biden administration’s former U.S. attorney general, announced the charges against Jaynes and Meany at a high-profile news conference in Louisville in 2022, where Garland said: “Breonna Taylor should still be alive today.” Garland said officers at the scene of the shooting of Taylor, 26, were unaware of the “false and misleading statements” in the arrest warrant.
Taylor’s boyfriend fired a single shot at police after breaking down her front door with a battering ram. Police returned fire, repeatedly attacking Taylor in the hallway. His killing, along with the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, sparked weeks of racial justice protests in the summer of 2020.
Jaynes was facing charges of conspiracy, falsifying records and misdemeanor civil rights violations. Meany was indicted for allegedly lying to federal investigators.
The warrant used to enter Taylor’s apartment alleged that Taylor had received a package from a suspected drug dealer and her ex-boyfriend. The document stated that Jaynes confirmed with the postal service that packages belonging to her ex-boyfriend would go to Taylor’s apartment. Investigators later learned that Jaynes did not verify this information with the postal inspector. Meany, a former police sergeant, signed the arrest warrant.
Jaynes was fired by Louisville police in 2021 for lying about an arrest warrant. Meany was fired after being indicted in 2022.
