By Dylan Lovan and Jeffrey Collins
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Federal prosecutors asked a judge Friday to dismiss the charges against two Louisville officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led police to raid Breonna Taylor’s apartment the night she was killed six years ago.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that their review of the case showed the charges against former Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany should be “dismissed in the interest of justice.”
Judges have twice reduced a felony charge against each officer to a misdemeanor, saying there wasn’t a direct link between the false information in the warrant and Taylor’s death. Prosecutors said after the second ruling that they had decided to drop the cases.
“We are elated with this development,” said Travis Lock, an attorney for Jaynes.
Meany’s lawyer, Michael Denbow, said he is “incredibly grateful for today’s filing.”
Meany “is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving forward with his life,” he said.
Taylor, 26, was shot to death by police when they broke down the door of her apartment while serving a no-knock drug warrant looking for a former boyfriend who no longer lived there.
Taylor’s boyfriend at the time fired at the officers, and Taylor was killed as police fired back.
Federal prosecutors under former President Joe Biden pressed charges against the officers. Under President Donald Trump, though, the Department of Justice asked that Brett Hankison, the only officer serving prison time related to Taylor’s killing, be let out of prison while he appeals his conviction.
A federal judge sentenced Hankison to 2 years and nine months in prison and 3 years of supervised release for firing 10 shots into Taylor’s windows on the night she was killed. None of the shots hit anyone.
Neither of the two officers who shot Taylor was charged, after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment.
Police found no drugs or cash inside Taylor’s apartment. The city paid a $12 million wrongful death settlement to Taylor’s family.
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Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Aaron Morrison in New York City and Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed to this report.