The FBI has arrested the former Louisville metro police detective who was fired for lying in the search warrant that led to the deadly 2020 raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment, along with three others, including the only officer facing state charges in connection with Taylor’s fatal shooting.
Joshua Jaynes was arrested Thursday morning by the FBI and booked into the Oldham County Detention Center, according to attorney Thomas Clay, who represents Jaynes.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that Jaynes, former officer Brett Hankison, Sgt. Kyle Meany and Officer Kelly Hanna Goodlett are the four defendants facing new federal charges in connection with the investigation that led to the March 13, 2020, death of Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman and technology technician. emergency room whose name was a rallying cry. for protesters across the country during the 2020 demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism.
LMPD said in a statement following the DOJ’s announcement that Chief Erika Shields initiated termination proceedings against Meany and Goodlett on Thursday.
“While we must refer all questions about this federal investigation to the FBI, it is critical that any illegal or inappropriate actions by law enforcement be comprehensively addressed in order to continue our efforts to generate trust between the police and the community,” the department said in a statement. .
One of the new indictments the DOJ announced Thursday concerns the false actions Haynes, Meany and Goodlett took to obtain the warrant to search Taylor’s apartment.
In a separate indictment, Hankison is accused of using “unconstitutionally excessive force during the attack on Ms. Taylor’s home” by firing 10 shots that entered an occupied neighboring apartment “without a lawful objective justifying the ‘use of lethal force,’ the assistant said. Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division made the announcement during a news conference Thursday morning alongside Garland in Washington, D.C.
Hankison was acquitted by a Jefferson County jury earlier this year on state reckless endangerment charges related to the shots fired at the apartment, which came close but did not injure any of Taylor’s neighbors.
It was not immediately clear if all of the officers, other than Jaynes, had attorneys available to comment on their behalf. An attorney who represented Hankison during his state case, Stew Mathews, said he was not yet sure whether he would represent Hankison in the new federal case. There is no link to the federal system, with court dates not yet available in online records.
“Breonna Taylor should be alive today,” Garland said during the press conference at Justice Department headquarters.
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Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represented Taylor’s family along with local attorneys Lonita Baker and Sam Aguiar, said after Thursday’s announcement that it was “a great day to arrest the Breonna Taylor’s killers.”
“Thank God Attorney General Daniel Cameron did not have the final say in the death of Breonna Taylor,” Crump added during a press conference in Jefferson Square Park, the center of protests in 2020 over the killing of Taylor.
Cameron, Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, drew the ire of protesters and Taylor’s family in 2020 after he announced that only Hankison and no other LMPD personnel would face state charges related to the case.
“Today was a big step toward justice,” Crump, Baker and Aguiar said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for the diligence and dedication of the FBI and DOJ as they investigated what led to Breonna’s murder and what happened next. The justice Breonna received today would not have been possible without the efforts of the Attorney General Merrick Garland or Assistant AG for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke.
“We hope this announcement of a guilty plea sends a message to all the other officers involved that it’s time to stop covering up and it’s time to accept responsibility for their roles in causing the death of a young black woman innocent and beautiful”.
During Thursday’s announcement, Garland said the federal charges focus on the conduct of LMPD’s Site-Based Investigations Unit, which attorneys for Taylor’s family characterized in a 2020 lawsuit as a group ” criminal” targeting people and drugs in Louisville’s West End.
The PBI Unit served five search warrants related to alleged drug trafficking in 2020, four of which were served on properties in the West End and one at Taylor’s apartment which was approximately 10 miles away from the others on Springfield Drive in the South End.
Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett were involved in the warrant for Taylor’s home, DOJ officials said.
Garland said the DOJ alleges that members of the PBI Unit “falsified the affidavit to use it to obtain a search warrant for Ms. Taylor’s home,” which violated federal law of civil rights and “resulted in the death of Mrs. Taylor.”
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Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett sought the warrant for Taylor’s home “knowing that the officers did not have probable cause to search,” Garland said, and they knew that the affidavit in support of the warrant ” contained false and misleading information and omitted material information.” “
Garland then described several details that had previously come to light when Jaynes was fired last year, namely that in the affidavit, which he swore before a judge, Jaynes wrote that he had verified through a postal inspector of the USA that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, an alleged drug dealer, was receiving packages at her apartment.
But Jaynes had spoken to another officer, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who had gotten information from the Shively police, not the postal inspector. According to those Shively officials, postal inspectors said there were no packages. Police found no drugs or cash in Taylor’s apartment after the fatal shooting.
The new allegations Garland shared Thursday include that Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage in May 2020 and “conspired to falsify an investigative document” and “conspired to defraud federal, state and local authorities” that were investigating the shooting.
Mattingly was shot during the attack by Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was the legal owner of her firearm and said he thought intruders were breaking into the apartment.
Two other police officers who fired their weapons during the raid — Myles Cosgrove, who fired the shot that killed Taylor, and Hankison — were also previously fired by LMPD for their actions, while Mattingly was fired but resigned from the department.
“The officers who ultimately conducted the search of this Taylor department were not involved in the drafting of the warrant and were unaware of the false and misleading statements it contained,” Garland noted Thursday.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said in a statement Thursday that the indictments “are a critical step forward in the process of getting justice for Breonna Taylor.”
“My thoughts are with Mrs. Tamika Palmer, Breonna’s mother, and all those who loved and cared for Breonna,” Fischer said. “While we cannot reverse her tragic death, we can and must continue to seek justice for her. I deeply appreciate the hard work of the federal government in tirelessly pursuing this case. And while I know some may feel that this process too it’s taken. long, as I’ve said from the beginning, there can be no shortcuts to due process, no shortcuts to justice.”
“Today is an important day in this process and on the road to justice,” added Fischer, a Democrat. “And I pledge to my city that my administration will continue tirelessly in our work to pursue that justice and create a more equitable, safe and compassionate city for all Louisvillians.”
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Earlier this year, a jury found Hankison not guilty of wanton endangerment charges related to the bullets he fired into an occupied neighboring apartment during the raid on Taylor’s apartment. He was the only officer charged at the state level in connection with the case.
The FBI has been investigating Taylor’s death since May 2020, when it opened its “color of law” case that focuses on allegations of police officers or other officials abusing their authority, including excessive force, false arrest or obstruction of justice.
Last year, the DOJ also opened a “patterns and practices” investigation into LMPD and Louisville metro government. The charges announced Thursday against the four defendants are separate from the ongoing “patterns and practices” investigation, according to the DOJ.
Garland said last year that the investigation would focus on several areas, including whether the department:
- Use unreasonable force, even during peaceful protests;
- Engaging in unconstitutional arrests, searches, and seizures, including the illegal execution of search warrants at private residences;
- Discrimination against people based on race; i
- Failed to provide public services under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The DOJ, as part of its investigation, has also been completing a comprehensive review of LMPD’s policies and training, along with an evaluation of the effectiveness of its oversight of officers and its accountability system, including their misconduct investigations.
This story has been updated.
Contact Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com