Attorney General Merrick Garland with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, on Aug.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
Attorney General Merrick Garland with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, on Aug.
Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A former Louisville police detective who helped write the order that led to the deadly police raid at Breonna Taylorapartment’s pleaded guilty to one federal conspiracy charge.
Federal investigators say Kelly Goodlett added a false line to the subpoena and then conspired with another detective to create a cover story when on March 13, 2020, the police shooting of Taylor began. attracted the attention of the whole country.
Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, was fatally shot by officers who banged on her door while executing a drug search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot at one of the officers as they went through the door and they returned fire, striking Taylor several times.
Goodlett, 35, appeared in a federal courtroom in Louisville on Tuesday afternoon and admitted to conspiring with another Louisville officer to falsify a subpoena. Goodlett briefly answered several questions from federal judge Rebecca Jennings Grady.
Three former Louisville officers was prosecuted on criminal civil rights charges earlier this month by a federal grand jury. Goodlett was not indicted, but charged in a federal information filing, which could mean the former detective is cooperating with investigators.
Goodlett will be sentenced on November 22, Grady said there may be “extenuating circumstances” that could cause the court to delay the sentencing date. Part of the plea hearing was also kept private and was not discussed at a public hearing on Tuesday. She faces five years in prison for this charge.
She resigned on August 5, a day after US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced new federal charges in the Taylor case.
Former officers Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany were indicted on charges related to a search warrant on Taylor’s home. A third former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with excessive force when he retreated from Taylor’s door, turned a corner, and fired 10 rounds into the side of her two-bedroom apartment. He was acquitted by a grand jury on similar state charges earlier this year. Jaynes, Meany and Hankison have all been fired.
The three former officers face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on civil rights charges.
