LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The U.S. Department of Justice filed notice Friday to appeal a judge's dismissal of the most serious charges against two former Louisville police officers facing federal crimes in connection with the fatal raid on Breonna Taylor's home in 2020.

Representatives of the DOJ could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

The two-page notice filed by prosecutors said they will appeal the decision to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The notice, as is common, did not detail arguments against U.S. District Court Judge Charles Simpson's Aug. 22 ruling.

A representative of the Taylor family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the family said in a previous statement that they "were devastated" by the dismissal but had been told the ruling would be appealed. "So we will wait for the appeals process to play out."

In essence, Simpson ruled 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 Detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany are 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.

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.

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.

This story may be updated. 

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