Louisville police are moving forward with firing one of the officers indicted by a federal grand jury last week in relation to the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment two years ago.
LMPD Chief Erika Shields wrote in a pre-termination letter released Tuesday that she plans to fire Sgt. Kyle Meany for violating the department’s rules and regulations. Meany was charged with civil rights violations and obstruction. Prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice allege he signed off on a search warrant application for Taylor’s home that he knew contained false information. They also accuse him of lying to FBI agents.
In the letter, Shields said Meany discredited himself and the department.
“Your conduct has severely damaged the image of our Department within the community,” Shields wrote. “The result of your actions seriously impedes the Department’s goal of providing the residents of our city with the most professional law enforcement agency possible.”
Meany will have the opportunity to contest his firing at a private meeting with the chief Thursday morning.
LMPD officials also announced Tuesday that Det. Kelly Goodlett resigned late last week. Goodlett was charged with conspiring to lie to federal investigators.
The two other officers who the DOJ announced indictments against last week, Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, were already fired from the department.
Jaynes, Meany and Goodlett face charges related to how they secured the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman working as an emergency room technician in Louisville, was killed by police in the resulting raid.
Only Hankison faces charges for actions that occurred during the middle-of-the-night raid on Taylor’s apartment. He’s accused of firing through Taylor’s covered patio door and window, endangering her and her neighbors. That same action drew state charges of wanton endangerment in 2020. He was acquitted by a jury in March.
