Ex-Louisville Detective Pleads Guilty To Lying To Obtain Warrant In Breonna Taylor Raid

By Sandy Malone and Christopher Berg

Louisville, KY – Former Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) Detective Kelly Hanna Goodlett pleaded guilty on Tuesday to violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights by helping falsify an affidavit for a search of the 26 year old’s apartment in connection with an investigation of her ex-boyfriend.

Charging documents said that then-Det. Goodlett falsely claimed a postal inspector had confirmed Taylor was receiving packages for her convicted drug dealer ex-boyfriend at her apartment before the raid, the Louisville Journal Courier reported.

She was also charged with knowingly conspiring with other members of the now-disbanded LMPD Place-Based Investigations Unit to falsify the search warrant affidavit for Taylor’s apartment.

Now-former Det. Goodlett also stands accused of lying to investigators from the Kentucky Attorney General’s office when she told them that LMPD Sergeant John Mattingly had told detectives “in passing” three months before Taylor’s was shot that Glover was getting packages at her apartment, the Louisville Journal Courier reported.

Prosecutors said the detective got together with former LMPD Officer Joshua Jaynes to “get on the same page” after the shooting before they were interviewed by investigators.

Jaynes, former LMPD Detective Brett Hankison, and LMPD Sergeant Kyle Meany were indicted by a federal grand jury.

Goodlett ultimately pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiring to violate the civil rights of Breonna Taylor.

Goodlett’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22. She is facing a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison with three years of supervised released and up to a $250,000 fine.

Prosecutors are planning to have Goodlett testify against her alleged co-conspirators.

The officers who were involved in the shooting of Breonna Taylor are not being federally charged, because they were not involved

Taylor was fatally shot on March 13, 2020, when LMPD officers served a “no-knock” warrant on her apartment in connection with a drug investigation of her former boyfriend.

Her current boyfriend opened fire on the officers after they entered the apartment and police returned fire.

Taylor was fatally shot.

Only one of the four officers involved in the raid on Taylor’s home was criminally charged for his actions that night.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said a state grand jury refused to indict the other officers involved in the raid that left Taylor dead.

Former Det. Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing wild shots that entered an occupied apartment next door.

Hankison was acquitted by a jury in March.

Taylor’s mother went to DC after Hankison’s acquittal and asked officials at the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to investigate her daughter’s fatal shooting by Louisville police.

Four months later, Taylor’s mother got her wish when DOJ announced federal civil rights charges against Hankison and three other members of LMPD who had gotten the warrants that led to the raid.

“The federal charges announced today allege that members of a Police Investigations Unit falsified the affidavit used to obtain the search warrant of Ms. Taylor’s home and that this act violated federal civil rights laws, and that those violations resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters at a press conference on Aug. 4, ABC News reported.

DOJ said the officers sought a warrant knowing they lacked probable cause and knowing that their affidavit supporting the warrant had false or misleading information.

Prosecutors said the officers knew the allegations that Taylor had been receiving drug packages at her home for her former boyfriend were untrue.

Officer Meany, who was their supervisor, approved the warrant application despite knowing it contained false information, according to DOJ.

“We allege that the defendants knew their actions in falsifying the affidavit could create a dangerous situation, and we allege these unlawful acts resulted in Ms. Taylor’s death,” Garland told reporters, according to CBS News.

Former Sgt. Hankison is also facing new charges in connection with Taylor’s death, CBS News reported.

Hankison was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights for firing 10 rounds through a window and glass door into the apartment after Taylor had been killed.

DOJ is already conducting a patterns and practices investigation of LMPD and made sure it was clear that probe is ongoing, CBS News reported.