When the Department of Justice announced federal charges against four Louisville cops for their connections to the March 2020 shooting death of Breonna Taylor, the backlash against Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron was instantaneous.
Why didn’t Cameron, the special prosecutor for the case, bring similar charges at the state level when he had the chance?
At the conclusion of its criminal investigation, Cameron’s office ultimately only brought charges against one ex-detective, Brett Hankison, for allegedly endangering Taylor’s neighbors. Hankison was acquitted on all accounts by a jury in March 2022.
Cameron defended his office’s handling of the case and urged people “not (to) conflate what happened today with the state law investigation undertaken by our office,” saying his team’s “primary task was to investigate whether the officers who executed the search warrant were criminally responsible for Ms. Taylor’s death under state law.”
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who attempted to execute a search warrant at her apartment in the early morning hours of March 13, 2020. Police said they believed Taylor was holding drugs and cash for her ex-boyfriend, a convicted drug trafficker.
Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he believed intruders were breaking in and fired one shot from his legally owned handgun after officers used a battering ram to force open the apartment’s front door. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly was struck in the femoral artery and he required emergency surgery.
In turn, Mattingly and detectives Myles Cosgrove and Hankison fired a total of 32 rounds. Six shots from Mattingly and Cosgrove struck Taylor, with the fatal shot coming from Cosgrove.
Two months after the shooting, a report from WDRB News in Louisville revealed that the warrant for Taylor’s apartment, which included a no-knock entry provision, secured by Detective Joshua Jaynes, falsely claimed a US Postal Inspector verified she was receiving packages for her ex -boyfriend.
The charges — most of which stem from the faulty drug warrant used to search Taylor’s home — are an effort to hold law enforcement accountable for the killing.
“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the charges, which include unlawful conspiracy, use of force and obstruction of justice.
The charges named former officers Jaynes and Hankison, along with current officers Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany. Louisville police said they are seeking to fire Goodlett and Meany.
Taylor’s death, along with the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and sparked months of protests in Louisville and across the nation.
How did Cameron’s office handle the investigation?
After Jefferson Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine recused himself from the criminal investigation into Taylor’s death – citing a conflict of interest because he was, at the time, pursuing an attempted murder charge against Walker – Cameron’s office became the special prosecutor for the case.
At a September 2020 press conference, Cameron said Mattingly and Cosgrove would not be charged because they were “justified” in returning fire after Walker’s initial shot.
Hankison, however, was indicted for three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for rounds fired through a covered patio door that penetrated a neighboring apartment with three people inside.
No one was charged for Taylor’s death.
Notably, Cameron said his office did not investigate “the obtaining of that warrant. … Federal law enforcement partners are conducting that investigation.”
Shortly after the announcement, members of the grand jury anonymously spoke out through their attorney, Kevin Glogower, to criticize Cameron’s handling of the case, saying they were not given the opportunity to consider any charges other than the wanton endangerment.
“The grand jury knew, and the DOJ agreed, that the falsified search warrant was important and relevant in this case,” Glogower said in a statement Thursday. “The grand jurors’ statements on the process have been verified in the DOJ investigation. They were right to be shocked and upset that they were not given the opportunity to deliberate on additional charges.”
The FBI opened a separate investigation into Taylor’s death more than two years ago.
On Thursday, the long-awaited results of that probe were made public when Garland announced criminal charges.
The charges against Jaynes, Goodlett and Meany home in on the falsification of the search warrant and subsequent conspiracy to “mislead federal, state and local authorities” investigating the incident. During the news conference, Garland drew a straight line from the lie on the search warrant to Taylor’s death.
“We allege that the defendants knew their actions in falsifying the affidavit could create a dangerous situation, and we allege these unlawful acts resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” he said.
The indictment said Jaynes and Meany both knew the warrant used to search Taylor’s home had information that was “false, misleading and out of date.” Both are charged with conspiracy and deprivation of rights.
Mean ran a police unit that focused on aggressive drug investigations. Police served five warrants simultaneously the night of the Taylor raid, four of them in a concentrated area where drug activity was suspected, and the fifth at Taylor’s apartment nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) away.
The warrant for Taylor’s house alleged that she was receiving packages for a suspected drug dealer who was a former boyfriend. The warrant, signed by Jaynes and approved by Meany, said Jaynes had confirmed with the postal service that packages for her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, were going to her Taylor’s apartment. Investigators later learned that Jaynes had not confirmed that with the postal inspector.
Jaynes was fired in January 2021 for violating department standards in the preparation of a search warrant execution and for being “untruthful” in the Taylor warrant.
Jaynes and Goodlett allegedly conspired to falsify an investigative document that was written after Taylor’s death, Garland said. Federal investigators also allege that Meany, who testified at Hankison’s trial, lied to the FBI during its investigation.
Federal officials filed a separate charge against Goodlett, alleging she conspired with Jaynes to falsify Taylor’s warrant affidavit.
Garland alleged that Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage in May 2020 “where they agreed to tell investigators a false story.”
Goodlett has pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy, Taylor family attorney Ben Crump said Thursday, though records on her court proceedings were sealed. Goodlett faces up to five years in prison.
Former Louisville Police Sgt. John Mattingly, who was shot at Taylor’s door, retired last year. Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, who investigators said fired the shot that killed Taylor, was dismissed from the department in January 2021.
University of Louisville law professor Samuel A. Marcosson told the Herald-Leader that state charges, like perjury and conspiracy, could and should have been brought against the officers involved in securing the warrant.
“It seems to me that the Attorney General should be asked some pointed questions about why he and his team did not recommend such charges to the grand jury, both in light of the discipline that the LMPD issued against those officers and now the federal indictment, ” he wrote in an email.
Hankison’s federal charges are two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law: one count was for Taylor and Walker, the other for the three neighbors in the adjacent apartment unit.
Again, Marcosson said that decision, “raises serious questions about how the wanton endangerment case was prosecuted in state court. It’s difficult to see the federal charge as indicating anything other than a belief on the part of the Department of Justice that the state trial did not adequately address the use of force.”
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who was attorney general prior to Cameron and is seeking a second term as governor, had not yet reviewed the charges when asked to comment by the news media. But, he said, the allegations are serious.
“Falsifying an affidavit is a serious charge and it ought to be taken seriously,” Beshear said.
Beshear was also careful in responding when asked if he agreed with those critical of Cameron’s handling of the case, saying, “I need more information, but a false affidavit could also be perjury under state law.”
The Associated Press and Lexington Herald-Leader via Tribune News Service contributed.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism