Federal prosecutors seek retrial for former detective shot at by Breonna Taylor's boyfriend



The Biden Department of Justice failed to get a conviction last month in the federal civil rights case against the former Louisville detective who returned fire during a drug raid when shot at by Breonna Taylor's boyfriend.

Despite admitting ahead of the Nov. 17 mistrial that it would take "enormous resources ... to retry this case," federal prosecutors revealed this week they plan to refile charges against former Detective Brett Hankison.

What's the background?

Louisville Metro Police Department narcotics detectives attempted to execute a "no-knock" search warrant around 12:43 a.m. on March 13, 2020. The apparently falsified warrant pertained to a drug investigation involving 26-year-old Breonna Taylor's ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover.

Police indicated they knocked repeatedly, announced their presence, then utilized a ram to gain entry. At the time, Taylor was inside the apartment with her then-boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, reported WHAS-TV.

When the police got the door open, Walker opened fire, striking Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly in the upper thigh and hitting his femoral artery. Officers returned fire.

In the exchange, Taylor was struck multiple times and killed. Mattingly survived, and Walker, initially charged with attempted murder of a police officer, later had his case dismissed.

Hankison reportedly fired 10 shots during the incident but did not hit Taylor or anyone else. He was nevertheless kicked off the force in June 2020 and ended up being the only officer criminally charged in the raid — with three counts of wanton endangerment.

The former detective was ultimately found not guilty of the wanton endangerment state charges last year.

Mistrial

Attorney General Merrick Garland — facing sustained pressure from Taylor's family and activists — announced charges for Hankison and the other officers involved in the fatal raid in August 2022.

Hankison was indicted accordingly for two civil rights offenses and accused of willfully using "unconstitutionally excessive force, while acting in his official capacity as an officer, when he fired his service weapon into Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and covered glass door."

The indictment noted that multiple bullets fired by the former detective traveled through the wall of Taylor's apartment and into neighboring apartments, endangering a pregnant woman, her partner, and their son.

During the trial, the former detective claimed his actions were the result of an attempt to defend himself and his fellow officers after seeing Mattingly catch a bullet from a shadowy figure who he figured was armed with a rifle, reported CNN.

"I felt helpless knowing that I had a handgun and I was facing rifle fire," Hankison testified. "Even though I had a tactical vest on, I knew that was no match for if the shooter came out with the rifle."

"I knew they were trying to get to him, and it appeared to me they were being executed with this rifle," continued Hankison. "I returned fire through the sliding glass door, and that did not stop the threat."

The Hill reported that after several days of deliberation in November, the 12-member jury notified U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings that they were at an impasse. Jennings implored them to keep trying. While they obliged her, their continued efforts were in vain.

Learning that the jury was deadlocked on both counts against Hankison, Jennings declared a mistrial on Nov. 17.

"I think the totality of the circumstances may be beyond repair in this case," said Jennings. "They have a disagreement that they cannot get past."

As the 47-year-old former officer was not acquitted, he remained susceptible to a retrial.

Retrial

While federal prosecutor Michael Songer indicated a retrial will be costly, an attorney for the Taylor family told reporters last month, "The assistant U.S. attorneys from the Department of Justice did indicate that it is their intention to retry Brett Hankison in this case."

Sure enough, federal prosecutors informed Hankison during a status hearing Wednesday that they plan to refile charges, the former detective's attorneys, Stew Matthews and Ibrahim Farag, confirmed to CNN.

A status hearing is reportedly set for Jan. 24, and a trial date has tentatively been set for Oct. 14.

Jack Byrd, another attorney for Hankison, filed a new motion of acquittal over the weekend, noting, "The evidence presented by the government in this case is insufficient to sustain a conviction on any of the Counts."

Judge Declares Mistrial In Case Of Former Officer Charged In Breonna Taylor Raidyoutu.be

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Attorney calls jurors who wanted to acquit cop involved in raid on Breonna Taylor 'less-than-patriotic fellow Americans'



A federal jury deadlocked in the case against one of the former Louisville police officers who was involved in the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor's home several years ago. After the judge declared a mistrial, an attorney representing some of the victims took aim at the jurors who had voted to acquit, questioning their loyalty to America and the Constitution.

Brett Hankison was one of seven Louisville Metro Police Department officers who showed up at Breonna Taylor's apartment shortly after midnight on March 13, 2020, to serve a drug-related search warrant to Taylor's ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover. Officers claimed to have identified themselves before breaking down the door, but Taylor's boyfriend at the time, Kenneth Walker III, allegedly did not hear the warning and fired at officers, believing them to be intruders.

Walker's shot injured one of the officers, and the seven cops, including Hankison, returned fire. Hankison fired 10 rounds through a window, though none of his bullets struck a human being. Some of his shots did go through a wall that Taylor shared with the apartment next door. Inside that apartment were a man named Cody Etherton, a woman named Chelsey Napper, and an unnamed 3-year-old boy, court documents said.

Six bullets fired from other officers' weapons struck and killed Taylor. Walker was not injured in the incident. Glover, the subject of the warrant, was not at the premises that night, and no drugs or drug paraphernalia were ever recovered from Taylor's residence.

Hankison was fired from the department a few months after the shooting and was the only cop involved in the incident who was tried at the state level. State jurors took just three hours to acquit him of charges related to wanton endangerment. After that acquittal, federal prosecutors decided to charge Hankison with violating the civil rights of Taylor, Walker, and the neighbors by using "unconstitutionally excessive force."

The federal trial against Hankison took three weeks and about two dozen witnesses before it was handed over to the jury, made up of one black man, five white men, and six white women. Jurors then deliberated for three days, during which time, they requested a copy of a court transcript, a request which Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings denied.

Jurors then warned the judge that they were having difficulty reaching a unanimous verdict, so Judge Jennings issued an Allen charge in the hopes of compelling them to come to a consensus, but it did not work. At the end of the day on Thursday, Jennings declared a mistrial.

Former LMPD officer Myles Cosgrove says Brett Hankison was 'reckless' during Breonna Taylor raid www.youtube.com

Attorneys representing the victims quickly issued statements to the media that criticized either the makeup or opinions of the jurors. In her statement, Lonita Baker, who is representing the Taylor family, implied that there were too many white people on the jury: "The Western District is made up of more than just Louisville, and we recognize that, but hopefully on the next trial, the jury does reflect the diversity of this city and the Western District of Kentucky."

Jeffery Sexton, who is representing Taylor's former neighbors, Etherton and Napper, went even farther, claiming that the jurors who wanted to acquit Hankison were "less-than-patriotic fellow Americans" who tried to "throw" the Constitution "in the trash can."

"Some of those deadlocked jurors are heroes," Sexton said. "They stood up for the Constitution. They said, 'No!' when some of their less-than-patriotic fellow Americans on that jury wanted to wad it up and throw it in the trash can."

While Sexton lamented that "there are no winners in a tie" and "there is no expiration date for the harm Hankison caused" Etherton and Napper, attorney Baker expressed optimism that Hankison might be convicted someday soon. "A mistrial is not an acquittal," she said. "And so we live another day to fight for justice for Breonna."

Baker also indicated she has good reason to hope. "As it stands right now, the assistant U.S. attorneys from the Department of Justice did indicate that it is their intention to retry Brett Hankison in this case," Baker said.

Judge Jennings has scheduled a conference date for December 13.

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Commentary: The grand jury made the right decision in Breonna Taylor’s death. And that’s the problem.



Protesters predictably took to the streets in anger after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced the charges against former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Brett Hankison on Wednesday.

Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment. It's a felony charge, but it has nothing to do with the fact that the officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor in her home during an overnight raid. Hankison was charged because he recklessly shot into the building and surrounding apartments. The two other officers involved were not charged at all.

Legally, it was probably the right call. And that's the problem. That's why it's so frustrating.

Taylor was suspected to be connected to her ex-boyfriend's drug trafficking activity. So the police had a warrant that legally allowed them to break into Taylor's apartment after midnight on March 13. The warrant didn't require them to knock, although Cameron claims they did.

Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend, was also in the apartment. He was a legal gun owner. When men, not in uniform, broke in the apartment in the middle of the night, he did what almost anyone with a gun might do — he used that gun to defend himself, his loved one, and their property from aggressors.

He didn't know he was shooting at cops. He thought it was a home invasion. Which is, by the way, an exceedingly reasonable thought to have when someone suddenly begins beating down your door in the middle of the night.

So in the heat of the moment, Walker fired one shot, which hit one of the officers in the leg. The officers then sprayed roughly two dozen bullets into and around the apartment, with six of them hitting Taylor. Walker was left inside to call 911, sobbing inconsolably, as he called for help for his dying girlfriend and tried to make sense of what had just happened.

AUDIO: 911 call from Kenneth Walker night Breonna Taylor died youtu.be

Once Walker fired that shot, the officers were legally enabled to use deadly force against Taylor and Walker. Every one of those 20+ bullets was legally justified because of Walker's one shot.

Breonna Taylor was not a violent criminal. At this point, there's no proof that she's a criminal at all. Police didn't find any drugs, drug money, or illegal weapons in her apartment after they killed her. The problem isn't the charge against Hankison; the problem is the decisions that led to that violent confrontation in the first place.

If police are going to be protected in situations where they have to use deadly force against suspects — which they must be in order to do their jobs — then they have a responsibility to avoid creating unnecessary situations in which that deadly force must be used, like those LMPD officers did the night Taylor was killed.

Police should not have gotten a no-knock warrant in this situation. Police should not have been sent to break down her door overnight in a surprise raid on the off chance she had some illegal items in her home. She was a 26-year-old emergency medical technician. She wouldn't have been difficult to find or arrest any number of other ways, if an arrest was even justified.

But because a potential nonviolent drug offender was treated with such aggression, she was killed, her boyfriend was put in an impossible and traumatic situation, a police officer was shot, another was fired and charged with three felony counts, and public trust for law enforcement took another hit.

And in the end, taxpayers with no role or responsibility in the situation footed the bill for the $12 million settlement the city paid Taylor's family in a civil lawsuit.

A citizen was killed in her home by the state, and while an officer was held accountable for bullets that went through apartment walls, no officers were held accountable for the bullets that pierced Breonna Taylor's body and ended her life.

We need to focus on making sure police are made to carry out their duties in a way that maximizes public safety and doesn't violate people's rights. We have to make sure people like Breonna Taylor don't get treated as expendable because of their proximity to drugs. We have to fight for the change that prevents these encounters from occurring, so we don't have to wait for a charging decision in fleeting hope for some form of justice after someone has been wrongly killed.

Regardless of what you think of Breonna Taylor, or what you think of police, we should all be able to agree that a system that produces this outcome when it works as intended needs to be altered and improved.

Breonna Taylor's life can't be restored, and the pain and trauma felt by her loved ones will last a lifetime. I just pray that the lessons learned from this tragedy can be used to save lives like hers in the future.

Louisville police officer goes viral after giving advice to 'armed MAGA militia'



A Louisville, Kentucky, police officer has gone viral in a video of him offering advice to what some social media users refer to as an "armed MAGA militia."

What are the details?

In a video, the unidentified officer can be seen speaking to members of what appears to be a militia group.

The group claimed they were attending a Louisville protest in response to the indictment against former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison connected to the case of the death of Breonna Taylor.

In the video, the officer can be heard telling the group that they should avoid certain areas of Louisville and offered ideas on where the group should stand. He then warned them that if they didn't follow his instructions, they would be arrested.

"If you go down there, if you choose to, there is a grassy area along the north side of the road," the officer says.

"Those people who want to come down today to exercise your Second Amendment rights or your First Amendment rights —"

A female militia member interjected, "We're not protesters. That's not what we're here for, that's why we're sitting over here."

"I'm going to watch over and protect everybody," he continued. "That's all I do, right? Just be prepared later on today. There will be several hundred, several thousand [demonstrators]. ... But don't try to come on Central, and don't try to take that south sidewalk. I don't want any of that kind of stuff to happen, OK?"

The female responded, "We're here for y'all, we're just here on standby. We're not out there in that rally, we don't want to be in that rally, because last time we kinda got shoved, like we were counterprotesters, and that's not what we do."

The officer adds, "I just wanted to make sure you knew that don't try to come to those areas. Anybody that tries to come in there is going to have a problem."

Twitter user Bob the Comrade shared video of the incident on Twitter, captioning it, "#Louisville Police giving armed MAGA militia members directions on where to stand, what to expect, which streets to avoid."

The video has been viewed more than 500,000 times at the time of this reporting.

#Louisville Police giving armed MAGA militia members directions on where to stand, what to expect, which streets to… https://t.co/g9ebSOXG2t
— Bobby Boucher Esq. (@Bobby Boucher Esq.)1600893292.0

One officer charged in Breonna Taylor's death, mayor implements 72-hour curfew to limit potential riots



One former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department officer was charged Wednesday in the death of Breonna Taylor, with the two other involved officers avoiding charges altogether, USA Today reported.

Former LMPD Sgt. Brett Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for allegedly firing his gun recklessly into Taylor's apartment on March 13 during an overnight no-knock drug raid. Hankison was fired from the department for his actions that night.

The other two officers, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, had been placed on administrative leave, but were still with the department.

First degree wanton endangerment is defined as follows:

A person is guilty of wanton endangerment in the first degree when, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he wantonly engages in conduct which creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person.

The charge is a class D felony that carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

When the three officers charged into Taylor's apartment around 1 a.m. March 13, Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired one shot at them. The officers were not in uniform, and Walker said he thought it was a home invasion. Walker shot Mattingly in the leg. The three officers returned fire with more than 20 shots. Taylor was shot five times.

The city of Louisville paid a settlement of $12 million to Taylor's family as part of a civil lawsuit.

Louisville officials had been preparing for unrest after this announcement, as protesters have been calling for the firing and arrest of all three officers involved in the shooting since May. The mayor established a 72 hour curfew of from 9 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. each day. The LMPD declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, canceling officers' time off requests and extending their hours.

There is already some indication of dissatisfaction with the charge. From the Associated Press:

Immediately after the announcement, people were expressing frustration that the grand jury did not do more.

"Justice has NOT been served," tweeted Linda Sarsour of Until Freedom, a group that has pushed for charges in the case. "Rise UP. All across this country. Everywhere. Rise up for #BreonnaTaylor."