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Jefferson County’s top prosecutor will not drop charges against Breonna Taylor protesters whose cases are still making their way through court, despite renewed calls to do so.
On Wednesday, several protest organizers met at Jefferson Square Park to demand all remaining cases be dismissed, stating new information that continues to be uncovered around Taylor’s death shows Louisville police have repeatedly lied to the community and investigators.
But in a statement, County Attorney Mike O’Connell said the outstanding protest-related cases do not meet his office’s “criteria for dismissal” and will continue to be prosecuted.
His office previously reviewed more than 1,000 protest arrests made between 2020 and 2021 and dismissed 70% of them, according to a Courier Journal analysis. But it has moved forward with more than 200 cases involving violence, threats of violence, property damage and road blocking.
“This consistent approach to prosecuting these cases ensures the public that every member of our community is treated fairly and equally before the law,” O’Connell said.
Background:Why most protesters arrested by Louisville police will never be convicted of a crime
Protest organizer Chris Will, however, said nothing about Taylor’s case or the protest-related arrests has been fair.
“I can show time and time and time again how the law doesn’t work in our favor, period,” he said.
Several Louisville Metro Police officers have been federally charged for protest-related incidents, including former officers Cory Evans, who was found to have bludgeoned a kneeling demonstrator, and Katie Crews, who was accused of unreasonable use of force leading up to the fatal shooting of West End barbecue stand owner David McAtee.
Will and others who spoke Wednesday also pointed to new documents that allege Detective Sgt. Kyle Meany hid information from other officers before they served a no-knock warrant at Taylor’s apartment, where she was shot and killed.
Meany is one of four officers that were recently indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for violating Taylor’s civil rights.
Latest:LMPD cop hid info that Taylor’s boyfriend was at apartment, had gun permit, government says
According to court records, Meany surveilled Taylor’s apartment two days before the warrant was served, saw her boyfriend Kenneth Walker’s car parked nearby and discovered he had a concealed carry permit. But even though that made the search riskier, Meany did not tell the team of detectives who executed it, nor did he insist it be included in the application for the search warrant.
On March 13, 2020, Taylor was fatally shot by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove after Walker, believing the couple was being robbed, fired one shot from the apartment that struck Mattingly in the leg.
“We told you from the very beginning follow the warrant,” poet and activist Hannah Drake said Wednesday. “… You called us thugs. You called us losers. We were the ones that were ruining this city. We didn’t break the contract with this city.
“Y’all are concerned about some broken windows. I’m concerned about the broken trust in this community. Every window is fixed. How do you fix Tamika Palmer? How do you fix Kenneth Walker?”
About 170 protest-related cases remain open, with about a third involving defendants who failed to appear in court.
Two dozen others are linked to a demonstration that shut down the Clark Memorial Bridge in June 2020. Last month, Jefferson District Judge Anne Haynie ruled the 26-member group could stand trial together over objections from the protesters’ defense attorneys.
That trial is scheduled for Nov. 3.
Andrew Wolfson contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Bailey Loosemore at [email protected], 502-582-4646 or on Twitter @bloosemore.
