Judge in Breonna Taylor case denies ex-officer’s alleged prior misdeeds as evidence

The prior alleged wrongdoing of a former Louisville police officer accused of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, her boyfriend and their neighbors in 2020, when Taylor was shot and killed in a botched police raid, cannot be introduced as evidence in the ex-officer’s trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday, according to WHAS11, the ABC affiliate in Louisville covering the case in the courtroom.
The United States government filed the motion in August introducing two acts of alleged misconduct by Brett Hankison while he was employed as a Louisville police officer. According to court documents, Hankison was part of a narcotics investigation in 2016 where he drew his handgun and ran between a suspect and members of the special weapons and tactics unit (SWAT) who had their rifles drawn.
In the second incident, Hankison allegedly had his gun pointed out of his car window in 2017, blocked in a customer at a barbershop who was trying to leave and began yelling at people in the shop, blowing the SWAT team’s undercover operation, according to court documents.
On March 13, 2020, Louisville officers conducted a raid of Taylor’s apartment at around 12:45 a.m. When officers broke down the door to the apartment, Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend, thinking it was an intruder, fired a single gunshot using a legally purchased firearm, hitting the first officer at the door. Two Louisville officers then fired a total of 22 shots into the apartment, one of which hit Taylor in the chest, according to information filed by the Justice Department. None of the bullets fired by Hankison, who was outside the apartment, struck anyone.
In the Breonna Taylor case, Hankison was charged in a two-count indictment for deprivation of rights under color of law, both of which are civil rights offenses, in August 2022. According to court documents, he was charged with willfully depriving Taylor and Walker of their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures, which includes the right to be free from a police officer’s use of unreasonable force during a seizure.
According to court transcripts, he was also charged with willfully depriving Taylor’s neighbors Chelsey Napper, Cody Etherton and Zayden Flournoy of their right to be free from the deprivation of liberty without due process of law, which includes the right to be free from a police officer’s use of unjustified force that shocks the conscience.
Hankison’s federal trial, which is the third attempt to convict him for his actions in the Taylor shooting, is set to begin on Tuesday. A federal trial last year ended in a mistrial when the jury reached an impasse because they were not able to reach a unanimous decision. Hankison was acquitted of multiple wanton endangerment state charges in March 2022.
United States District Court Judge Rebecca Jennings granted the prosecution’s motion to exclude references to Hankison’s prior court proceedings in his upcoming trial, according to WHAS11.
In court testimony last year, Hankison stated that he did not have a clear target as he fired 10 rounds into the side wall of Taylor’s apartment in March 2020. The bullets also went through a neighbor’s apartment.
“I could not,” Hankison replied when asked by the prosecution during a previous trial if he could see an outline of a person through the window blinds when he fired his shots. He added that he could not see an actual person or weapon, according to court documents.
Hankison claimed that he saw muzzle flashes coming from inside the home and believed the threat was moving up the hallway and advancing on the officers from Hankison’s position outside, according to court transcripts.
“You weren’t there,” Hankison told prosecutors. “You don’t know what I saw …”
Hankison stated that he now knows that the muzzle flashes were coming from his fellow officers, who were standing in the doorway of the apartment’s front entrance, according to court documents. Hankison said, at the time, he thought his fellow officers were being executed.
The prosecutor stated that Hankison’s spent shell casings were not found near the sidewalk close to the home where Hankison claimed to be when he fired. They were found behind a gray truck in the parking lot, according to court transcripts.
The prosecution referenced testimonies from former Sgt. John Mattingly and Etherton, Taylor’s neighbor, who stated that there was a pause between the time officers in the doorway finished shooting and when Hankison began firing his 10 rounds from the side of the apartment, according to court documents.
The defense said the prosecution took Mattingly and Etherton’s statements out of context and didn’t have the necessary evidence to claim there was a pause between Hankison’s fellow officers’ shots and his own gunfire, according to court transcripts. Hankison said he stopped shooting after he saw there were no more muzzle flashes inside the apartment. He testified that he thought he neutralized the threat.
The prosecution argued if the officers had stopped shooting before Hankison began, there would have been no muzzles for him to see and target, making his shooting unjustified, according to court documents.
Neither the prosecution, defense, nor Taylor’s family’s attorneys immediately responded to ABC News’ request for statements.
Prosecutors filed new charges last week against Kyle Meany and Jason Jaynes, two former Louisville officers accused of obtaining false warrants for Taylor’s home, according to AP News.
A federal judge dropped charges in August against Meany and Jaynes, according to court documents.
The judge stated that the decision of Walker to open fire when officers entered the home “prompted the return fire which hit and killed Taylor,” according to court documents.
The new charges include more allegations about how the former officers allegedly falsified the affidavit for the warrant, according to AP News.
Both ex-officers knew the affidavit they used to obtain the search warrant contained misleading information and and that it lacked the necessary probable cause, according to prosecutors.
Jaynes still faces misdemeanor charges of violating Taylor’s right to be free from an unreasonable search, a felony charge to cover up information from the FBI after the shooting and a felony charge to impede the FBI’s investigation, according to court documents. Meany still faces an indictment that he lied to the FBI.
Former Louisville officer Kelly Goodlett pleaded guilty in August 2022 of conspiring to falsify an affidavit to obtain a warrant to search Taylor’s home without probable cause and to cover up the false warrant by lying to criminal investigators after Taylor was killed, according to the DOJ.
A pretrial conference focused on jury questionnaires took place Friday in Hankison’s case, according to WHAS11. The trial starts on Tuesday with jury selection, according to the courts.
ABC News’ Stephanie Maurice and Deena Zaru contributed to this report.