Judge dismisses charges against ex-Louisville police officers in Breonna Taylor case
Judge dismisses charges against ex-Louisville police officers in Breonna Taylor case
DEENA ZARU and SABINA GHEBREMEDHINSat, March 28, 2026 at 2:33 AM UTC
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A federal judge on Friday dismissed misdemeanor charges against two former Louisville police officers who were charged with providing false information on a search warrant that led to the fatal March 13, 2020, police raid at the apartment of Breonna Taylor.
Taylor was fatally shot during the raid and her death prompted national outrage and fueled "Black Lives Matter" protests across the country.
The judge's ruling comes one week after the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the charges against the two former Louisville police officers, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, who were also charged in 2022 with civil rights violations.
Breonna Taylor's mother criticizes DOJ's request to dismiss charges against officers
ABC News - PHOTO: In this screen grab taken from a video, Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor's mother, speaks during a press conference after meeting with Department of Justice officials, March 14, 2022.
DOJ asks judge to drop charges against 2 officers in Breonna Taylor case 'in the interest of justice'
In Friday's ruling, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky senior judge Charles R. Simpson III wrote that the court "received and considered the Government's motion to dismiss [the case]" and has granted the motion.
"The Indictment and Superseding Indictment on file in the above-captioned case are hereby dismissed with prejudice as against both defendants, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany," the judge wrote.
In seeking to have the charges dismissed, the DOJ said the government had undertaken a "further review" of the matter.
"Based on that review, and in the exercise of its discretion, the Government has determined that this case should be dismissed in the interest of justice," the DOJ wrote in the filing last week.
Ahead of the judge's ruling, Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, criticized the DOJ's move in an interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis earlier this week.
"She was killed because of their lies and negligence, and somebody should be held accountable for that," Palmer said.
She added, "Breonna doesn't get to come back. She doesn't get to put it behind her," saying that for her, "every day" has been March 13 when her daughter was killed.
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"There's no putting it behind me," she said.
Following the judge's ruling, ABC News reached out to Taylor's family and their attorneys, Ben Crump and Lonita Baker, for comment.
In a statement provided to ABC News on Friday, Meany's attorney Michael Denbow said: "Kyle is overjoyed and incredibly relieved to have the case dismissed. He is incredibly thankful for his family and everyone else that has stood by and supported him through this process."
ABC News has also requested comment from an attorney representing Jaynes.
Ahead of the judge's ruling, Jaynes' attorney Travis Lock said that his client was "elated" by the DOJ's request to dismiss the charges.
ABC News - PHOTO: Tamika Palmer said her daughter, Breonna Taylor, was "full of life" before she was killed when Louisville, Kentucky, police carried out a no-knock search warrant at Taylor's apartment.
Ex-officer Brett Hankison sentenced to 33 months in prison in Breonna Taylor's death
A spokesperson for the DOJ told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday, that the charges against the officers represented "inappropriate, weaponized federal overreach."
"Neither of these officers was present during the shooting, and a district court has already repeatedly dismissed the most serious charges as completely unsupportable," the spokesperson said. "These cases represented the kind of inappropriate, weaponized federal overreach that this Department of Justice no longer tolerates."
Federal prosecutors alleged that Jaynes and Meany provided false information on the search warrant that allowed plainclothes Louisville police officers to enter Taylor's Louisville home to serve a no-knock drug warrant as they searched for a former boyfriend of Taylor's who was not present at the home.
Officers broke down the door to Taylor's apartment, and her then-current boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who thought someone was breaking into the home, fired one shot with a handgun, striking an officer in the leg. Three other officers returned fire, shooting 32 bullets into the apartment.
A federal judge had twice struck felony charges against the two officers, reducing them to misdemeanors, most recently in 2025.
A former Louisville officer, Brett Hankison, was convicted of a civil rights offense in connection with Taylor's death during the raid and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.
ABC News' Luke Barr contributed to this report.
Source: “AOL Breaking”
