LOUISIVLLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Attorneys for former Louisville Officer Brett Hankison, who was found guilty of using excessive force and violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor in a botched police raid of her home in 2020, requested a new trial, accusing prosecutors of misconduct.

On Nov. 1, a jury acquitted Hankison of violating the civil rights of Taylor's neighbors but guilty of using excessive force in violating Taylor's civil rights, a conviction that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

On Friday, Hankison's attorneys filed several motions, including a request for a new trial, in part, because prosecutors misled jurors in their closing arguments about what other officers testified happened during the raid.

Prosecutors "outright misstated evidence in the record" during closing arguments, according to the motion, and disregarded orders from the judge on specific information that could be presented. 

"The prosecutor made a variety of statements which amounted to expressing his personal opinion about the truthfulness and/or reliability of witnesses' testimony," the defense argued. "Specifically, by imploring the jury to apply more weight to the testimony of officers called by the government throughout the entirety of his closing."

The motions filed in U.S. District Court also argued that prosecutors said there were no drug activities occurring in Taylor's home, but they knew and did not mention that an examination of Taylor's boyfriend's phone showed he was "clearly trafficking in marijuana and prescription medication. The report contained communications between other parties confirming (Kenneth) Walker's drug trade."

When police burst in on March 13, 2020, Walker, fired a shot that hit Sgt. John Mattingly in the leg. Walker has said he believed the couple were being robbed.

Hankison's attorneys also claim Walker should not have been allowed to have a gun as he admitted to smoking marijuana during the weeks before the raid.

In addition, attorneys for Hankison want to talk to the jury in the trial, as "several jurors were observed crying and showing obvious emotion" before the verdict.

Defense attorneys want to interview jurors regarding any "external or unlawful influences to which any juror may have been exposed," according to a motion.

A third motion by the defense requests U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings dismiss the guilty verdict because Hankison did not shoot Taylor or "restrain" her movement by force.

Mattingly and former Officer Myles Cosgrove shot Taylor.

The trial centered around Hankison firing 10 times from outside Taylor's apartment through a covered sliding glass door and blinded windows in Taylor's bedroom window, with three bullets flying into an adjacent apartment where Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and her 5-year-old child lived.

Hankison also nearly hit Taylor and a fellow police officer.

The defense, as argued during the trial, claims prosecutors failed to prove that Taylor was alive at the time Hankinson fired through the bedroom window, "let alone that Ms. Taylor was conscious and her movement was somehow restrained by Brett Hankinson."

Defense attorneys also argued the prosecution unfairly appealed to the local and national interests of the jury in discussing the broader claims of police shooting across the county.

According to the motion, several of the jurors recalled the protests and riots that occurred in Louisville as a result of Taylor's death, "and many of them expressed fear that riots or other civil unrest could occur again depending on the outcome/verdict."

The judge, not the jury, will decide the sentence on March 12. 

Hankison was the only officer charged for his actions during the raid. Three other officers were charged with their role in the search warrant affidavit, which included false information. No trial date has been set.

Jurors were deadlocked for much of the last day of the trial but Jennings gave them what is known as an Allen charge, meaning she instructed them to continue to deliberate, stressing that it is not unusual for juries to struggle with a unanimous decision and the need to make "every reasonable effort" to reach a verdict.

Late that night, jurors found Hankison not guilty on one charge involving Taylor's neighbors, but were still deadlocked on the other count involving Taylor.

The judge gave jurors another Allen charge and sent them back to continue deliberating.

The decision to convict Hankison on the charge involving Breonna came about two hours later.

Last year, during Hankison's first federal trial, jurors deadlocked and Jennings ordered a mistrial when jurors sent out a note that some of them had "concluded deliberating" and could not come to a unanimous ruling.

The charges stem from a March 13, 2020, raid of Taylor's home in the middle of the night, in which police officers busted down her door to serve a search warrant related to a drug dealer who lived 10 miles away.

Police sought out a search warrant for Taylor's home as part of a broader investigation that focused on drug suspect Jamarcus Glover. Police believed Glover may have been using Taylor's apartment to receive drugs and store money.

When police burst in, Walker, fired a shot that hit Mattingly in the leg.

Multiple Louisville Metro Police officers returned fire, killing 26-year-old Taylor. No drugs were found in her home.

Her death, along with George Floyd's, resulted in months of protests in Louisville and across the country over police brutality and racial discrimination.

This was Hankison's third trial in total related to his actions the night of the raid. The federal jury last year deadlocked in November on the two counts of civil rights violations.

A state Jefferson Circuit Court jury in March 2022 found Hankison not guilty on three counts of wanton endangerment.

Prosecutors have asked the judge to allow them to respond by Dec. 6. 

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