Breonna Taylor’s mother speaks out against DOJ’s move to dismiss former LMPD officers’ charges
By Jamie Mayes
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LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Tamika Palmer said her fight for justice for her daughter, Breonna Taylor, is far from over. Six years ago, Taylor was shot and killed by officers in a botched police raid.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case with prejudice against Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany, two former LMPD officers accused of falsifying the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment. Their felony civil rights charges were dismissed in August.
Palmer said the latest development reflects a long-standing lack of accountability.
“There’s been a lack of accountability just from the very beginning,” Palmer said. “I don’t understand the people making decisions about whose life matters and who doesn’t.”
Taylor family attorney Lonita Baker said the family still has not achieved the justice it sought.
“When you take away, at this point, the consent decree gone, not defending the appeal, the Brett Hankison conviction, and now dismissing the case where there’s clear evidence — where another officer agreed to testify,” Baker said. “If you can’t be held accountable when there’s clear evidence as a police officer, when can you be held accountable?”
In its filing, the DOJ said, “The government has determined that this case should be dismissed in the best interest of justice.”
Baker and Palmer strongly rejected that reasoning.
“To say that to dismiss the case would be in the interest of justice is violating their ethical obligations as prosecutors and violating everything we know about the criminal justice system,” Baker said. “And it only continues to expand the belief that the criminal justice system does not work for everyone the same.”
“I’ve never had a lot of hope in this system to begin with,” she said. “It’s just always been a wait and see.”
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