LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Louisville’s police chief can’t suspend without pay the officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death because there is not “indisputable evidence” about what happened, according to an internal memo from a city attorney.
Protesters and activists have called for authorities to fire Louisville police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Det. Myles Cosgrove and Det. Brett Hankison, who raided Taylor’s apartment on March 13, and bring criminal charges. Police shot and killed Taylor after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired shots at who he believed were intruders, according to his attorney.
From left: Former Louisville Metro Police Department Det. Myles Cosgrove, former Det. Brett Hankison and former Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has cited state law and the police union’s agreement with the city as reasons why he can’t fire the officers, saying any action outside of those parameters could expose the city to lawsuits. Critics have said there is already enough evidence for Fischer to fire them and defend any legal action later.
A 2015 legal document says the police chief can only suspend officers without pay in “very limited circumstances.” The document, a memorandum of understanding, was written to clarify state law and the terms of the River City Fraternal Order of Police’s collective bargaining agreement with Metro government, Annale Taylor, the city’s deputy general counsel, wrote in a memo on Monday.
Mattingly, Cosgrove and Hankison are on leave but are still getting paid.
In particular, officers can only be suspended without pay before an investigation is complete in cases where the chief has “evidence of a disciplinary violation, which evidence eliminates genuine doubt regarding what conduct has occurred,” the memorandum says. Video recordings and photographs are two examples mentioned.
The undercover narcotics officers who raided Taylor’s apartment were not wearing body cameras.
There are five other conditions – all of which must be satisfied for a suspension without pay.
In the memo this week to Metro government’s human resources director, Ernestine Booth, Annale Taylor wrote that there has been much speculation in the media about what happened at Breonna Taylor’s home.
“Some may believe the facts are clear and known,” she wrote. “However, that is incorrect, as there is disputable evidence as to whether misconduct occurred.”
She noted that unlike the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, no known video or audio recordings of Ms. Taylor’s death exist.
The doubts about whether police misconduct occurred can only be resolved, “if at all, by a thorough and fair investigation,” like the ones underway by the Louisville Metro Police Department’s public integrity unit, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office, the FBI and the Department of Justice, she wrote.
There are differing accounts of what occurred in the early morning raid. The previous day, Jefferson Circuit Judge Mary Shaw approved a "no-knock" warrant that allowed police to enter the apartment without announcing their presence.
Police have said they did identify themselves, but defense attorney Rob Eggert noted in a court filing this week that neighbors did not hear the announcement and in Walker’s call to 911, he told a dispatcher that someone "kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend.”
“Mr. Walker was well within his rights in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to use his lawfully owned firearm to attempt to repel the intruders who had broken into his girlfriend’s home,” Eggert wrote. “Those intruders ended up killing his girlfriend.”
WDRB News obtained copies of the memo from Annale Taylor and the 2015 memorandum of agreement, which were first reported by The Courier Journal.
Sam Aguiar, an attorney for Breonna Taylor's family, on Wednesday questioned what other kinds of "closed door" memoranda of understanding exist between Fischer and police.
In a statement, Aguiar singled out what he claimed was a "fraudulent warrant" for the March raid; Hankison's alleged history of "sexual assault claims from credible and courageous women," which police are investigating; and lingering questions about Hankison's whereabouts after the fatal shooting.
"How the hell does none of this conduct meet any standard for termination, let alone severe criminal punishment?" Aguiar said. "He should have been fired right and charged right then and there."
He added: "This system is wrong and has to change. Fire them. If they want to fight it, let them."
Earlier this month, Fischer defended his decision not to fire the officers as a “struggle of emotion and law.”
“If an officer is fired outside of that process, the officer can appeal, will appeal to get their jobs back immediately with back pay and then even damages and have a platform then to sue the city for wrongful termination,” he said.
“So in the end what would happen would be: An officer would be removed for a very short period of time – anywhere from days to one or two weeks – be reinstated with back pay and then have a basis to sue the city.”
“It would cost our city even more money, and the end result is the same – the officer remains on the job,” Fischer said.
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