A former Louisville detective is planning to plead guilty to federal charges filed against her in the police killing of Breonna Taylor, leaving prosecutors on the verge of securing their first conviction in a case that ignited months of racial justice protests in Kentucky’s largest city.
The ex-detective in question, Kelly Goodlett, is one of four current white and former Louisville police officers the US justice department last week charged with civil rights violations in the 2020 shooting death of Taylor, who was Black.
Goodlett, her lawyer Brandon Marshall and justice department attorney Mike Songer said during a virtual court hearing Friday that Goodlett had agreed to plead guilty after being accused of helping falsify a search warrant and writing a false report in the case, according to multiple local and national media reports.
Federal magistrate judge Regina Edwards tentatively set the hearing for Goodlett to enter her guilty plea on 22 August and let her remain out of custody on a $10,000 bond. If convicted as charged at trial, she could face five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The terms of Goodlett’s plea deal were not immediately disclosed, but such arrangements often require cooperating with prosecutors in cases against any co-defendants. The three others charged in Taylor’s death – active sergeant Kyle Meany as well as ex-detectives Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison – face more serious charges that can carry up to life in prison upon conviction.
Goodlett was the only one of the four who was not indicted by federal grand jurors on 4 August but instead charged through what is known as a bill of information – often a strong sign that a defendant has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Taylor was a 26-year-old Black woman who was shot and killed in her home by a Louisville police unit conducting a drug investigation. Officers suspected her of her ex-boyfriend of her – a convicted drug trafficker – was hiding cash or drugs at her home of her.
Federal officials allege that the affidavit submitted in support of the warrant to search her home contained false and misleading information. Police went into Taylor’s home without knocking, and her ella boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired his handgun once, fearing burglars had broken in.
Police responded by firing more than 30 times into the home, hitting Taylor and killing her.
Jaynes and Meany purportedly littered the affidavit justifying the search warrant with false information, while Hankison is accused of unconstitutionally excessive force by firing blindly into Taylor’s home, according to prosecutors. Goodlett also allegedly had a hand in the alleged plot to falsify the warrant affidavit and tried to cover that up by writing a false report.
Goodlett has since resigned. Jaynes and Hankison were fired. Hankison earlier this year was tried on state charges of wanton endangerment because some of his shots went through a neighbor’s wall, but he was acquitted.
Along with the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Taylor’s death helped spark protests nationwide in the summer of 2020.