LOUISIVLLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A federal court judge denied a request from attorneys for former Louisville Metro Police Officer Brett Hankison to speak with jurors who found him guilty of using excessive force and violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor in a botched police raid of her home in 2020.

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.

Attorneys for Hankison asked the judge to be able to conduct post-trial interviews of jurors "regarding any external or unlawful influences to which any juror may have been exposed."

The defense claimed that the potential of "civil unrest" pending the outcome of the trial may have biased the jury. Also, one juror experienced an "emotional medical episode" in front of the other jurors. In addition, the defense argued that jurors were hung at least twice before making a decision and were clearly upset about the verdict. 

But U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings ruled a local order finds "no person, party or attorney, nor any representative of a party or attorney, may contact, interview, or communicate with any juror before, during or after trial."

Jennings also argued the defense failed to show how the medical episode of one juror "affected the deliberations or prejudiced the verdict." The juror was excused from the jury long before the verdict.

And finally, Jennings called the lengthy jury deliberations being an issue a "fishing expedition and does not support post-verdict jury inquiry," according to Thursday’s ruling.

Hankison will be sentenced by the judge April 8.

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

Several jurors were observed crying and showing obvious emotion before the verdict.

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.

According to the motion by the defense, 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."

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.

In 2023, 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.

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