Former officers’ felony charges dropped in Breonna Taylor case

A federal judge has dropped the felony charges against two former Louisville Metro Police Department officers involved in the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor’s home. Taylor was shot and killed while police were executing a “no knock” forced-entry warrant for her boyfriend at her home in March 2020.

Then-detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany were federally charged in 2022 with submitting a false affidavit to search Taylor’s home ahead of that raid. They are then accused of working together to create a cover story to hide their roles in preparing the false warrant affidavit. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.

A federal judge ruled Thursday, Aug. 22, that Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, firing his gun when officers burst into the home was “the legal cause of Taylor’s death,” not the warrantless entry . Walker fired the shot thinking the officers were intruders — and police fired back, hitting Taylor multiple times.

The former officers’ charges have now been downgraded to misdemeanors punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment for no more than a year.

Meany still faces one charge of making a false statement to federal investigators, which could land him up to five years in prison. Jaynes faces charges of falsification of records in a federal investigation and conspiracy to falsify records and witness tampering. If convicted, he could get a total of 40 years.

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