Kentucky State Attorney General Daniel Cameron appears to have relied upon ONE witness who supposedly heard Louisville Metro Police announce their presence before breaking in Breonna Taylor’s door and killing her. Problem is that is NOT what the witness initially reported to the police. There were multiple other witnesses who say the police did not annonce their presence. And it appears that one of the jurors is suing to release the transcripts of the grand jury investigation into Taylor’s killing. The juror is essentially saying that Cameron pulled some shit and left the grand jury hanging high and dry.
First up, what was up with this one witness that backed up the police version of Taylor’s killing?
Witness who said police announced themselves at Breonna Taylor's apartment changed story
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nearly a week ago, Attorney General Daniel Cameron declared that Louisville Metro Police knocked and announced themselves before breaking down Breonna Taylor's apartment door during an attempted search that ended in her death.
He knew it, he said, because the officers at the scene told investigators they had identified themselves as police — and one of Taylor's neighbors said he heard them do it.
But Cameron left something out — that same witness previously said the exact opposite.
"No, nobody identify themself," Aaron Sarpee told Louisville Metro Police investigators March 21, according to investigative documents obtained by The Courier Journal.
It wasn't until nearly two months later, when investigators circled back to Sarpee on May 15, that Taylor's neighbor said he heard officers knock and announce: "This is the cops."
OK. He changed his story. Not a good thing. Except…
Sarpee was at the St. Anthony Gardens Apartments in Louisville's South End just after midnight March 13 to pick up his daughter from an upstairs apartment, according to an investigative report from Sgt. Amanda Seelye. Seeyle's recap was first reported by VICE News.
Stanley David, who then lived in the apartment directly above Taylor's, told investigators that his mother would babysit Sarpee's daughter and that he typically picked her up from David's apartment around 12:30 a.m.
The night of Taylor's shooting, Sarpee was about to leave when he was told by an officer to go back inside. He told investigators he saw a lot of police cars and "saw them in uniform, so he knew it was the police," Seelye's investigative summary said.
Based on a recorded statement by Mattingly, the officer who interacted with Sarpee was Hankison — the detective fired from LMPD in June who now faces criminal charges for shooting his gun into an apartment next to Taylor's.
“I remember Brett extending his gun, saying, ‘Get back in your apartment, get back in your apartment,’” Mattingly said.
Hankison “was a little bit worked up,” Mattingly said, as Hankison and the neighbor continued to yell at each other.
Detailing the March 21 call, Seelye wrote, "Mr. Sarpee stated no one identified themselves as police but he knew they were the police because of their uniforms. He stated he did not hear anyone knocking on the apartment door."
And when the cops tried to reach Sarpee for another interview, this is what happened:
At the end of the March 21 call, Vance asks Sarpee for an additional police interview, which he agrees to.
The investigative summary shows that police tried to contact Sarpee April 1 and May 15. He called back May 15.
In the synopsis of that call, police wrote that Sarpee told them he was walking out of the apartment above Taylor's to leave when he saw four or five people below the apartment stairs. He was ordered to go back inside.
Sarpee then heard gunshots, "pop, pop, pop," according to the transcript.
"He heard the officers knocking on the door and saying 'this is the cops,'" investigators write.
But Mattingly's statements contradict Sarpee's recollection. In his interview with investigators, Mattingly said he was saying, "'Police! Please come to the door! Police! We have a search warrant.'"
According to the transcript, Sarpee then "heard a man saying, 'it wasn't me, I didn't have anything to do with it.' Mr. Sarpee stated he knew they were the police because they had bulletproof vests on and when he looked out the sliding glass doors, he saw the police cars in the parking lot with blue lights on."
And how many other witnesses did reporters find at the apartment complex that said the police did not announce their presence before breaking down Taylor’s door? Twelve. This included the NYT.
This means that the grand jury dismissed the testimony of twelve other people that night. However, this assumes that Daniel Cameron presented the other twelve witnesses who stated that the cops did not announce their presence. What do you think the odds are of a grand jury taking the word of one witness over twelve, especially one who changed his story?
Verification of Daniel Cameron’s prosecutorial duplicity is in those grand jury transcripts. And at least one former juror is SUING to have the grand jury transcripts released to the public.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An unidentified grand juror in the Breonna Taylor case is demanding the release of the grand jury’s transcript and related recordings so “the truth may prevail.”
In a motion filed late Monday afternoon, the juror also asks a judge to allow fellow jurors to give up their confidential status if they wish and speak freely about the controversial case that saw one of three Louisville police officers who fired their weapons at Taylor's apartment indicted on felony charges.
The motion also accuses Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron of using the grand jurors "as a shield to deflect accountability and responsibility for those decisions" and says that has led to "more seeds of doubt in the process."
Emboldened is my doing.
"The full story and absolute truth of how this matter was handled from beginning to end is now an issue of great public interest and has become a large part of the discussion of public trust throughout the country," Kevin Glogower, the attorney for the juror, wrote in the filing that comes just five days after the indictment.
And the motion specifically requests the court find grand jurors are permitted to discuss what didn't take place in the grand jury proceedings — including "any potential charges and defendants presented or not presented."
Cameron, during Wednesday's press conference, declined to say what charges the grand jury considered or who it considered charging.
But he said homicide charges weren't appropriate in Taylor's death "because our investigation showed, and the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove are justified in the return of deadly fire, after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker."
Sure sounds like Cameron didn’t present all the evidence to the grand jury.
The suit goes on to state that Cameron laid decisions "at the feet of the grand jury while failing to answer specific questions regarding the charges presented."
"Attorney General Cameron attempted to make it very clear that the grand jury alone made the decision on who and what to charge based solely on the evidence presented to them.
"The only exception to the responsibility he foisted upon the grand jurors was in his statement that they 'agreed' with his team's investigation that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their actions."
The filing says the grand juror wants to promote transparency, but also wishes to remain anonymous given the level of attention on the case.
Grand jury had to let Mattingly and Cosgrove off, according to Cameron.
I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t ever recall seeing a legal action like this by a grand juror, at least not in Kentucky. Maybe I am wrong? Someone out there in the legal profession will have to tell me.
But I have always thought the fix was in with Daniel Cameron. Remember, this is a man who is suing Governor Andy Beshear to overturn all his executive orders on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Cameron wants to be a mass murderer to please Trump and this Death Cult.
You think Cameron give a flaming fuck about the death of one black woman when he is working on killing thousands in Kentucky?
Tuesday, Sep 29, 2020 · 11:05:16 PM +00:00
·
Merlin196357
Experts say Breonna Taylor grand juror's extraordinary bid to end secrecy is the right move
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nationally recognized authorities on criminal law say an anonymous grand juror’s motion this week to lift the veil of secrecy from the Breonna Taylor case is unprecedented.
"In 45 years of law practice, I have never heard of a grand juror filing such a motion," said Stephen Bright, a leading civil rights lawyer and guest lecturer at Yale Law School.
Emily Bazelon, a senior research fellow at Yale and staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, tweeted “Wow” after The Courier Journal published the first story about the motion Monday night.
“I don’t remember seeing this before,” Bazelon said.
Edwin Chemerkinsky, a legal scholar and dean of the UC-Berkeley School of Law, agreed, saying he had never seen a grand juror sue to make a grand jury transcript public.