Charges dismissed against 2 former officers in Breonna Taylor raid

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CNN) – A federal judge has dropped felony charges against two former Louisville police officers who worked on the search warrant in the deadly Breonna Taylor raid.

Louisville detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany were federally charged in 2022 with submitting a false affidavit to search Taylor’s home.

Taylor, who was 26 years old, was shot and killed in her apartment during a flawed forced-entry raid in the early hours of March 13, 2020.

On Thursday, a judge ruled there was no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.

Instead, the judge found the decision by Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, to fire his gun when officers burst into the home as “the legal cause of Taylor’s death.”

The ruling dropped the “use of a dangerous weapon language,” making the charge a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, one year in prison or both.

Meanwhile, Meany still faces one charge of false statement to federal investigators. That carries a maximum of five years in prison.

Jaynes also faces two charges of falsification of records in a federal investigation and conspiracy to falsify records and witness tampering.

He could be sentenced to a total of 40 years.