Federal judge dismisses criminal charges against 2 former LMPD officers in Breonna Taylor case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A federal judge has dismissed the criminal case against two former Louisville Metro Police officers in the Breonna Taylor case.

Former detective Joshua Jaynes and former 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.

Both were indicted by the DOJ's prosecutors working under then-President Joe Biden's administration. The case was tied up in the federal court system for several years, stretching into President Donald Trump's term.

U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson issued a one-page ruling Friday throwing out charges against Jaynes and Meany.

The U.S. Department of Justice made a motion last week for a federal judge to dismiss the criminal case, with prejudice, against Jaynes and Meany "in the interest of justice."

In a statement Friday, March 20, U.S. attorney Kyle Bumgarner said the U.S. State Attorney's office for the Western District of Kentucky and all of its employees "have been recused from all investigations and decisions concerning Breonna Taylor."

"Since the inception of the investigation in 2020, all prosecutorial decisions have been made by Main Justice without consultation with my office," Bumgarner said.

Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, shared her disappointment in the DOJ's move in a post on social media.

"I am compelled to express my extreme disappointment in Trump and the Department of Justice. Their phone call today informing me that charges against the police are being dropped while implying they have helped me is utterly disrespectful," Palmer wrote. "This is the first time I've heard from them since they took over and it's clear they have not served me or Breonna well. Their behavior is deplorable. F*** Trump and his DOJ administration."

This comes months after a federal judge dismissed the most serious felony charges — carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison — against the two former officers.

While saying he was "seriously troubled" by their alleged actions, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Simpson ruled the officers shouldn't be charged with depriving Taylor's rights under color of law and causing her death.

Prosecutors sought to "severely punish" Jaynes and Meany, believing police never should been at Taylor's door and, without the false warrant, she would still be alive, the judge wrote.

But Jaynes and Meany weren't at the raid and "the government cannot attribute Taylor's death to the lack of a warrant supported by probable cause," Simpson said in the ruling.

Taylor was killed when her boyfriend, Kenneth 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 once dated Taylor. Walker said he thought the couple were being robbed. Police fired 32 shots in response, killing Taylor.

Simpson ruled officers returning fire was a legal act, "thus, this is not a case of excessive force. Nor is it a case of police brutality. ... This is a case of legal, lethal and tragic crossfire that was not initiated by the police."

Meany is still facing a felony charge for allegedly lying to the FBI and a misdemeanor charge for the warrant. If convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison.

Jaynes is also charged with two other felony counts for conspiracy, falsification of records and misdemeanors for civil rights violations. He faces a total of up to 25 years in prison.

Prosecutors 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."

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

A year ago, Simpson made a similar ruling dismissing the charge that Jaynes and Meany caused Taylor's death. He ruled then that Walker's initial gunshot he fired at police was the cause of death.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed new charges in October. The so-called “superseding” indictment amended the original charges, adding additional allegations in hopes of getting around the judge's ruling.

But Simpson came to the same conclusion in his ruling last August.

Jaynes was fired by Louisville police in 2021 for being untruthful about the warrant. Meany was fired after he was charged in 2022.

Background: How we got here

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

Walker 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.

Ex-detectives Brett Hankison, Jaynes and former officers Meany and Kelly Goodlett faced charges that include civil rights offenses, unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a news conference in August 2022.

Goodlett already pled 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.

Hankison was sentenced to 33 months in prison after being convicted of violating Taylor's civil rights. But he was granted release from prison on bail in December 2025 after only serving two months while he appeals his conviction. The DOJ asked the court to release Hankison in a November filing.

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 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 previously told Jaynes that Glover been receiving packages at Taylor's home. However, "J.M." told Jaynes in January of that year that he no information to support that, according to the indictment.

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 were not dismissed.

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