LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal prosecutors filed a brand new indictment Tuesday towards two former Louisville officers accused of falsifying a warrant that led police to Breonna Taylor’s door earlier than they fatally shot her.
The Justice Division’s superseding indictment comes weeks after a federal decide threw out main felony costs towards former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany.
The brand new indictment contains extra allegations about how the previous officers allegedly falsified the affidavit for the search warrant.
It says they each knew the affidavit they used to acquire the warrant to look Taylor’s house contained info that was false, deceptive and outdated, omitted “materials info” and knew it lacked the mandatory possible trigger.
The indictment says if the decide who signed the warrant had identified that “key statements within the affidavit had been false and deceptive,” she wouldn’t have authorized it “and there wouldn’t have been a search at Taylor’s house.”
Legal professional Thomas Clay, who represents Jaynes, mentioned the brand new indictment raises “new authorized arguments, which we’re researching to file our response.” An lawyer for Meany didn’t instantly reply to a message for remark late Tuesday.
Federal costs towards Jaynes and Meany had been introduced by U.S. Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland in 2022. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who weren’t current on the raid, of realizing they falsified a part of the warrant and put Taylor in a harmful state of affairs by sending armed officers to her condo.
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 within the leg. Walker mentioned he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fireplace, putting and killing Taylor, a 26-year-old Black lady, in her hallway.
In August, U.S. District Decide Charles Simpson declared that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend had been the authorized reason behind her demise, not a foul warrant.
Simpson wrote that “there isn’t any direct hyperlink between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s demise.” Simpson’s ruling successfully diminished the civil rights violation costs towards Jaynes and Meany, which carry a most sentence of life in jail, to misdemeanors.
The decide declined to dismiss a conspiracy cost towards Jaynes and one other cost towards Meany, who’s accused of constructing false statements to investigators.
