A former Louisville police detective accused of helping falsify a no-knock search warrant for Breonna Taylor's home and filing a false report to cover it up pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of conspiring to violate Taylor's civil rights, according to civil rights attorney Ben Crump. Kelly Goodlett is the first officer convicted in relation to the 26-year-old emergency medical technician’s death on Mar. 13, 2020. Although Goodlett wasn’t on the scene the night Taylor was killed, the ex-detective’s actions led to the problematic no-knock drug warrant that gave police officers the right to enter Taylor’s apartment, even though the person authorities were searching for was already in custody in Louisville that night.
Taylor was sleeping when officers rammed through her door. Her boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who was also at Taylor’s home at the time, has maintained that he didn't hear officers identify themselves, so he fired a "warning" shot to scare off what he thought was an intruder. In response, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove, and Officer Brett Hankison fired multiple times. Hankison is accused of blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor’s home, killing Taylor and endangering her neighbors who luckily weren’t injured.
It’s unclear at this point if part of Goodlett’s plea deal will involve her cooperation with federal authorities to help convict her former peers who also face federal charges.
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Mattingly and Cosgrove weren't charged in Taylor's death. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said "the officers who ultimately carried out the search at Taylor's apartment were not involved in the drafting of the warrant and were unaware of the false and misleading statements that it contained."
Detective Joshua Jaynes and Sgt. Kyle Meany, however, were charged with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses "for their roles in preparing and approving a false search warrant affidavit that resulted in Taylor’s death," the Department of Justice wrote in a news release. Hankison was also charged with civil rights offense "for firing his service weapon into Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and covered glass door."
Goodlett admitted she lied when asserting that a postal inspector had verified that Taylor's apartment was used to hold packages for her ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover, who was convicted of dealing drugs. Postal inspectors later confirmed that no such evidence exists.
Federal authorities said in their indictment that Jaynes and Goodlett met in a garage on May 17, 2020 to "get on the same page because they could both go down for putting false information" in the warrant affidavit. During that meeting, Jaynes and Goodlett "agreed to tell investigators a false story," according to the indictment.
When prosecutors spelled out the details of the case and a judge followed by asking Goodlett about the veracity of the statements, she answered "Yes, your honor," according to the Courier-Journal.
"Guilty," she said, concluding the hearing with how she would plea.
She faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release, the newspaper reported. Her sentencing date is scheduled for 1 PM ET on Nov. 22, 2022.
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