LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A federal judge dismissed the most serious charges Thursday against two former Louisville Metro Police officers facing federal crimes in connection with the fatal raid on Breonna Taylor's home in 2020.

In essence, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Simpson ruled Breonna Taylor's boyfriend's initial gunshot he fired at police was the "legal cause of her death" — not an improper warrant that authorized the raid. 

Former Louisville Metro Police Det. Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany were accused of providing and lying about false information in a search warrant used by police to burst into Taylor's house, resulting in her death.

But Simpson ruled that the decision by Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, to shoot at police when they burst in the home on March 13, 2020, was the direct cause of her death, not the search warrant.

He dismissed two felony charges against both men that carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. The charges involved using a dangerous weapon to deprive Taylor of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search. 

In his ruling, Simpson said the "tragedy of Breonna Taylor's death and the gravity of her family's grief are not lost on the court."

However, in this case, "the alleged facts do not fit the felony offenses as written."

Jaynes is still facing two felony counts alleging a cover-up after Taylor's death and could be sentenced to a total of 40 years. Meany is facing one charge of lying to the FBI and a maximum of five years in prison. 

No trial date has been set. 

Prosecutors have argued Jaynes and Meany "drafted and approved what they knew was a false affidavit to support a search warrant for Ms. Taylor's home. That false affidavit set in motion events that led to Ms. Taylor's death when other LMPD officers executed that warrant."

Jaynes and Meany were not present at the raid.

"The family is obviously devastated," Taylor's family said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "Right now, we are just processing as prosecutors flush out next steps. We’ve been told they plan to appeal, and so we will wait for the appeals process to play out."

Joshua Jaynes

Joshua Jaynes, who has been federally charged for his actions in the March 13, 2020, raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed. (Source: Oldham County Detention Center)

Attorney Brian Butler, who represents Meany, said, "we are very pleased by the Court's ruling." 

Taylor was killed when Walker fired a shot after police burst in early in the morning as part of a series of searches revolving around a drug dealer who had once dated Taylor. Walker has said he thought the couple were being robbed. Police fired 32 shots in response, killing Taylor. 

"The Government has charged a Fourth Amendment violation based only on the alleged warrantless entry," according to the ruling. "Yet, the fact allegations make clear that the Execution Team's post-midnight, startling entry caused K.W. to open fire which, in turn, prompted the return fire which hit and killed Taylor. ... The Government has not explained how the lack of probable cause to enter created a foreseeable risk of a gunfire exchange."

Simpson ruled there are no facts proving Taylor's death was caused by the lack of probable cause to enter her home.

"Taylor's death was proximately caused by the manner in which the warrant was executed," Simpson ruled. Walker's "decision to open fire, as alleged and argued, was the natural and probable consequence of executing the warrant at 12:45 a.m. on an unsuspecting household."

Police were looking for money or drugs involving Jamarcus Glover, who was at the center of a narcotics probe by Louisville police. The warrant for Taylor's home was executed around the same time that police served other warrants on suspected drug houses in the city's west end — some 10 miles away.

No drugs or money were found in the 26-year-old's home. 

LMPD has claimed that while Jaynes obtained a "no-knock" warrant, police repeatedly knocked on Taylor's door and announced themselves before knocking it in.

Kyle Meany mugshot

Kyle Meany, who has been federally charged for his actions in the March 13, 2020, raid in which Breonna Taylor was killed. (Source: Oldham County Detention Center)

Walker has said he never heard police announce themselves and believed the couple was being robbed. He fired a shot, hitting former officer Jonathan Mattingly in the leg.

In August 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged four former Louisville police officers with federal crimes in connection with the raid of Taylor's home.

Jaynes, Meany and Brett Hankison faced charges that include civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction.

Another former officer, Kelly Goodlett, has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy for knowingly including false information in the search warrant affidavit used to raid Taylor's home and then conspiring with Jaynes to cover it up.

Prosecutors said Goodlett and Jaynes knew false information was in the search warrant affidavit when it was presented to a judge and that other information was stale.

Jaynes claimed in an affidavit presented to Jefferson Circuit Judge Mary Shaw that a postal inspector verified that drug suspect Jamarcus Glover, who had dated Taylor, was using Taylor's home to receive parcels.

Jaynes' indictment claims that in April or May 2020 he tried to get an LMPD officer identified as "J.M." to say that he had previously told Jaynes that Glover had been receiving packages at Taylor's home. However, "J.M." had told Jaynes in January of that year that he had no information to support that, according to the indictment.

The indictment says Jaynes and Goodlett provided a "false Investigative Letter" to criminal investigators around May 1, 2020.

Tony Gooden, a U.S. postal inspector in Louisville, told WDRB News in May 2020 that Louisville police didn't confer with his office. He said a different law enforcement agency asked his office in January 2020 to investigate whether any potentially suspicious mail was going to the unit. The local office concluded that there wasn't.

"There's no packages of interest going there," Gooden said.

Jaynes later texted Goodlett that a criminal investigator wanted to meet with him after Gooden's account refuting the information in the warrant affidavit was reported, according to the indictment. 

The indictment says Jaynes and Goodlett met the night of May 17, 2020 in Jaynes' garage, where Jaynes allegedly told Goodlett "that they needed to get on the same page because they could both go down for putting false information in the Springfield Drive warrant affidavit."

The charges involving Jaynes falsifying information have not been dismissed. Meany is still charged with lying to the FBI.

Goodlett is expected to work with prosecutors and possibly testify against other officers. She will not be sentenced until the trials of the other three officers have concluded.

The former detectives who fired the shots that struck Taylor — John Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — were not charged because they didn't know about the false information in the search warrant.

Hankison is scheduled to stand trial in October on charges related to him 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.

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