Judge’s Logic-Defying Order Names Breonna Taylor’s Defense Attorney Her Killer

Protesters and members of the Black Womens Collective gather around the Breonna Taylor memorial in Jefferson Square Park on October 3, 2020 in Louisville. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Disappointingly, a Kentucky federal judge has dismissed felony charges against two former police officers accused of killing Breonna Taylor during a raid in 2020.

But U.S. District Judge Charles R. Simpson III’s decision to blame the 26-year-old emergency medical technician’s death solely on his boyfriend, Kenneth Walker III, defies logic. And it reinforces the difficulty of holding police accountable, even after one detective has already pleaded guilty to lying and covering up.

Walker fired once with a legally owned gun as Louisville police burst through Taylor’s apartment door at 12:45 a.m. March 13. Police returned fire 32 times, with several bullets hitting Taylor. Her death added fuel to the international outcry over police killings this summer.

Walker’s decision to shoot was the “overriding cause” of her death, the judge said. “There is no direct connection between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.”

The connection seems obvious: If the officers hadn’t lied about a drug dealer living there, the shooting wouldn’t have happened. “If they had just knocked on the door and said, ‘It’s the police,’ we would have opened the door for them,” Walker said in an Instagram post about the ruling.

Moreover, in a legal system that supports “stand and defend” laws, why is Walker being criticized for exercising his right to self-defense? Why was he singled out when prosecutors dropped charges against him for wounding an officer in the leg and the city of Louisville settled with him for $2 million for police misconduct?

Will the next argument be that Taylor is responsible for her own death simply because she was asleep in bed when the police arrived?

Federal prosecutors plan to appeal the judge’s ruling, according to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer. “The only thing we can do at this time is be patient,” she said in a statement. “An appeal will prolong the life of this case, but as we have always said, we will fight until we get full justice.”

That means former Louisville police detective Joshua Jaynes and former sergeant Kyle Meany, who served the warrant but was not at the shooting, can only be charged with misdemeanors, which can result in fines. Jaynes and Meany are accused of depriving Taylor of her constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches. Simpson, a senior judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan, said the facts did not support a felony charge.

Jaynes is still charged with conspiring with another detective to conceal a false warrant and forging a document to mislead investigators. Meany is still charged with making a false statement to FBI investigators.

The tragedy began with police efforts to arrest Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, DeMarcus Glover, for drug trafficking. He was arrested the night of the raid at a different location.

Former detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty in federal court to lying about a search warrant for Taylor’s apartment, saying it was Glover’s primary address and that they documented he kept drugs and cash there. The officers also lied about the need for a more aggressive “no-knock” warrant, said Goodlett, who is expected to be sentenced in April.

The two officers who fired shots at the apartment were not charged. A grand jury did not indict them after then-Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron recommended no charges. Another officer who fired 10 shots into the apartment building, endangering other residents, was acquitted in a state trial and won a mistrial in federal court. He is expected to be retried in October.

“You wonder, where is the accountability?” Sadiqa Reynolds, a Louisville activist and attorney, told WHAS11 after the judge’s ruling. “What is in place to prevent an officer from fabricating a warrant and causing someone’s death? What are we doing?”

Louisville government officials have accepted at least some responsibility. A $12 million settlement in a wrongful death case included promises of better crisis response, more citizen oversight and an “early warning” system for threatened officers.

The city is also finalizing negotiations on a federal consent decree that would give a judge oversight of overdue police reforms in 36 areas of operation, including training, administration, community response and workforce management.

A two-year investigation into the department found violations of residents’ constitutional rights: illegal stops, detentions and arrests; excessive force with the use of neck cuffs, stun guns and dog bites; inadequate attention to sexual assault and domestic violence; and yelling and name-calling that escalated conflicts. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the report “an insult to the people of Louisville who deserve better.”

Kenneth Walker also deserves better.

While a judge has every right and expertise to assess whether police actions constitute crimes, it is unfair to call Walker Taylor’s killer when he was trying to protect her.

If not for his eyewitness testimony, Breonna Taylor would not be remembered as a promising individual whose life was unjustly ended but written off as just another victim of the drug trade.

This commentary was originally published in the Kentucky Lantern, which, like NC Newsline, is part of the national States Newsroom network.