Former Louisville detective Kelly Goodlett pleaded responsible to federal civil rights violations on Tuesday for her position within the notorious police taking pictures of Breonna Taylor, a Black girl killed in her dwelling, providing the primary prison conviction in a case that ignited nationwide protests over racial justice and police brutality, in accordance with a number of media stories.
Goodlett, considered one of 4 white former cops charged within the case, was accused of serving to falsify a search warrant of Taylor’s condominium and writing a false report back to cowl that up.
She is the primary of that group to be convicted in a case that, together with the police homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis, sparked racial justice avenue demonstrations throughout the US in 2020.
That 12 months, in March , as half of a bigger investigation into alleged drug trafficking of their metropolis’s West Finish, Louisville police carried out a no-knock raid on Taylor’s condominium, the only property that wasn’t positioned within the space of curiosity. Officers suspected that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend – a convicted drug trafficker – was hiding money or medication at her dwelling.
Taylor, 26, was within the condominium when officers entered, and her boyfriend Kenneth Walker – who feared intruders have been robbing the place – fired a single shot from his handgun. In response, police fired greater than 30 pictures into the condominium, killing Taylor.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Goodlett, who labored for Louisville police for eight years, “knowingly and willfully conspired and agreed” to cowl up a false search warrant affidavit with Det Joshua Jaynes that led to the lethal raid. She additionally allegedly coordinated a “false cowl story” with Jaynes in an try to flee accountability for his or her roles in making ready the warrant affidavit that contained false data, in accordance with a federal indictment.
Jaynes has pleaded not responsible to his alleged position within the case.
Goodlett, who resigned from Louisville police after she was charged, was the one one of many 4 who was not indicted by federal grand jurors on 4 August however as an alternative charged by means of what is called a invoice of knowledge – usually a powerful signal {that a} defendant has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Earlier than the federal fees, solely officer Brent Hankison had been charged by Kentucky’s state authorities, in his case with wanton endangerment for blindly firing pictures into Taylor’s condominium. He was later acquitted of these fees however faces separate ones within the federal case that ensnared Goodlett.
The opposite three officers charged within the case – Jaynes, Hankison and Kyle Meany – are anticipated to go to trial in October. All of them have since been fired from their jobs on the Louisville police division.
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