It is disappointing that a federal judge in Kentucky has dismissed felony charges against two former police officers accused of killing Breonna Taylor during a 2020 raid.
But U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III’s decision to firmly place blame for the death of the 26-year-old emergency room technician on her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, defies logic. And it underscores how difficult it is to hold police accountable, even when a detective has already pleaded guilty to lying and covering up.
Walker fired his legal weapon once when Louisville police burst unannounced through Taylor’s apartment door at 12:45 a.m. on March 13. Police returned fire 32 times, with several bullets striking Taylor. Her death further fueled international protests against police killings that summer.
Walker’s decision to shoot was “an overriding cause of death,” the judge said. “There is no direct connection between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.”
The connection seems obvious: If the officers had not lied about a drug dealer living there, the shooting would not have happened. “If they had just knocked on the door and said, ‘The police are here,’ we would have opened the door,” Walker said in an Instagram post about the verdict.
And in a legal system that supports stand-your-ground laws, why is Walker being criticized for exercising his right to self-defense? Why is he being singled out when prosecutors dropped charges against him for injuring a police officer in the leg and the city of Louisville settled with him for $2 million for police misconduct?
Will the next argument be that Taylor is responsible for her own death just because she was sleeping in her bed when the police arrived?
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said federal prosecutors intend to appeal the verdict. “The only thing we can do at this point is continue to be patient,” she said in a statement. “The appeal will prolong the case, but as we have always stressed, we will continue to fight until we get full justice.”
That means for now that former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany, who processed the warrant but were not present at the shooting, face only misdemeanor charges that could result in fines. Jaynes and Meany were charged with depriving Taylor of her constitutional right to evade unreasonable searches. Simpson, a judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said the facts did not justify the felony charge.
Jaynes is further accused of working with another investigator to cover up the false warrant and falsifying a document to mislead investigators. Meany is further accused of making a false statement to FBI investigators.
This tragedy began with police efforts to arrest Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, DeMarcus Glover, for drug trafficking. He was arrested at another location the night of the raid.
Former detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty in federal court to misrepresenting the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment. She claimed it was Glover’s primary residence and they had documented him keeping drugs and cash there. The officers also lied when they denied the need for the more stringent no-knock search warrant, said Goodlett, who is expected to be sentenced in April.
No charges were filed against the two police officers who fired shots in the apartment. A grand jury did not indict them after then-Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron recommended no charges. Another police officer who fired 10 bullets into the apartment building, endangering other residents, was acquitted in a state trial and won a mistrial in federal court. He is scheduled to be tried again in October.
“You wonder, where is the responsibility?” Sadiqa Reynolds, a Louisville activist and attorney, told WHAS11 after the judge’s decision. “What prevents an officer from fabricating a warrant and causing someone’s death? What do we do?”
Louisville authorities have at least accepted some responsibility. A $12 million settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit included promises of improved crisis intervention, more citizen oversight and an “early warning system” for officers in trouble.
The city is also in the process of abandoning negotiations on a federal settlement that would give a judge responsibility for overseeing long-overdue police reforms in 36 operational areas, including training, administration, community response and leadership.
A two-year investigation by the department uncovered violations of residents’ constitutional rights: illegal stops, detentions and arrests; excessive use of force through neck restraints, stun guns and dog bites; inadequate attention to sexual assault and domestic violence cases; shouting and verbal abuse that escalate conflicts. US Attorney General Merrick Garland called the report “an insult to the people of Louisville, who deserve better.”
Kenneth Walker also deserves better.
While it is well within the power and competence of the judge to determine whether the police’s actions were a crime, it is unfair to brand Walker as Taylor’s murderer when he was trying to be her protector.
Without her eyewitness testimony, Breonna Taylor would not be remembered as a promising life that was unjustly ended, but would be dismissed as another victim of the drug trade.
Get the morning’s headlines straight to your inbox
