Judge denies request by Brett Hankison to throw out conviction in Breonna Taylor case

LOUISIVLLE, Ky. (WDRB) – A federal judge has denied former Louisville Officer Brett Hankison’s request to throw out his November guilty verdict 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 Taylor's civil rights, a conviction that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Hankison’s attorneys asked U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings to dismiss the guilty verdict because Hankison did not shoot Taylor or "restrain" her movement by force.

But Jennings ruled Wednesday that “there can be no question that when officers forcibly opened Taylor’s front door with a ram while armed and brandishing their weapons, all the individuals would have objectively believed they were not free to leave.”

In essence, the show of force was “intended to restrain” anyone in Taylor’s apartment, she ruled.

“At all times, immediately before and during Hankison’s shots, Taylor’s freedom of movement was restrained by the officers’ show of authority, including Hankison’s.”

Also, the defense argued 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."

A dead person's civil rights cannot be violated.

In her ruling, Jennings noted the entire shooting lasted about ten seconds and it would be unreasonable, if not impossible, to determine the exact second that Taylor died.

But she found it didn’t matter. The jury heard the argument and could reasonably believe that Taylor was still alive when Hankison began firing.

The jury heard evidence that her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, called 911 after the shooting had stopped and possibly told her to “breathe” twice during the call, which could mean she was struggling to breathe, according to the ruling.

Another officer testified he thought he heard a woman scream, though later admitted it could have been a man.

“In sum, drawing all inferences in a light most favorable to the United States, there was sufficient circumstantial evidence from which the jury did reasonably conclude that Taylor was alive when Hankison fired the first of five bullets through the bedroom window,” according to the ruling.

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.

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 judge, not the jury, will decide the sentence on April 8.

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.

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. A previous federal deadlocked 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.