LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jury selection began Monday morning in the federal trial of a former Louisville police officer charged with civil rights violations in connection to the raid that ended in Breonna Taylor's death.
The case stems from Hankison's involvement in Louisville Metro Police's March 2020 police raid on Taylor's home. Hankison fired his gun several times, shooting into Taylor's apartment through a sliding glass door and a window.
He's charged with violating the civil rights of Taylor, her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, and the rights of three neighbors in an apartment next door.
Hankison was indicted in August 2022 on two charges of deprivation of rights for firing into a bedroom window in Taylor's apartment that was covered with blinds and a blackout curtain after "there was no longer a lawful objective justifying the use of deadly force," according to the indictment
His trial was originally supposed to start in August, but was delayed until October to allow the defense to go over a large amount of evidence turned in by prosecutors.
On Monday morning, 44 prospective jurors showed up to the federal courthouse to begin the process of selecting a 16-person jury. Each member of the jury pool completed a questionnaire prior to arriving, and they were asked to take another questionnaire Monday with more "case-specific" questions.
Court documents show those questions could range from knowledge about the case to sentiments about police and knowledge about Taylor and Hankison himself. They went into recess just before 11 a.m. and never returned. It's unclear if a jury has been seated or if they'll reconvene Tuesday morning to continue jury selection.
In a similar case, a jury in a state criminal case found Hankison not guilty on three counts of wanton endangerment last March stemming from the botched raid of Taylor's home.
Three other former officers have also been federally charged for their involvement in the Taylor case: Kyle Meany, Kelly Goodlett and Joshua Jaynes. The charges resulted from a federal investigation that, in part, looked at how police obtained the search warrant for Taylor's apartment, something a prior state investigation by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office did not pursue. Cameron has said that aspect was part of the Justice Department's work.
Jaynes and Meany are accused of drafting and approving "what they knew was a false affidavit to support a search warrant for Ms. Taylor's home," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke has said. "That false affidavit set in motion events that led to Ms. Taylor's death when other LMPD officers executed that warrant."
Taylor was inside the apartment with her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, when police burst in early in the morning on March 13, 2020.
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.
LMPD has claimed that while Jaynes obtained a "no-knock" warrant, police repeatedly knocked on Taylor's door and announced themselves before knocking it in.
Walker has said he never heard police announce themselves and believed the couple was being robbed. He fired a shot, hitting former officer John Mattingly in the leg.
Police responded with 32 shots, hitting Taylor six times. The 26-year-old died at the scene.
No drugs were found in her home.
The former detectives who fired the shots that struck Taylor — Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — were not charged because they didn't know about the false information in the search warrant.
Related Stories:
- Louisville police included multiple lies in Breonna Taylor warrant, former detective admits
- Former LMPD officer pleads guilty to conspiracy in raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment
- TIMELINE | Step-by-step look at Breonna Taylor case, from her death to 4 officers facing federal charges
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