Tessa Duvall

Louisville Courier Journal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Three months after firing two officers connected to the fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor more than a year ago, the Louisville Metro Police Department is refusing to release large portions of the investigation into their conduct.

The department released 1,600 pages of records to The Courier Journal Thursday, most of which already had been made public last October as part of the criminal investigation into Taylor’s slaying.

Former Interim police Chief Yvette Gentry fired detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes Jan. 5 and sanctioned three other officers connected with the March 13, 2020, raid that ended in Taylor’s death.

Detectives Joshua Jaynes, left, and Myles Cosgrove were notified that their department intended to fire them.

Detectives Joshua Jaynes, left, and Myles Cosgrove were notified that their department intended to fire them. LMPD

The documents released Thursday shine little new light on how Gentry reached those disciplinary decisions.

That’s because LMPD withheld 20 interviews with officers and other witnesses in Taylor’s shooting. A 21st interview, with Cosgrove, included just one page — with all but one sentence blacked out.

The interviews were with six of the seven officers on scene March 13, three patrol officers, four SWAT team members, five other officers from the Criminal Interdiction Division, a training lieutenant and two Shively officers.

Cosgrove, who the FBI concluded fired the shot that killed Taylor, lost his job for violating the department’s use of force policy. Jaynes, who requested the warrant for Taylor’s apartment, was fired for untruthfulness and improper search warrant preparation.

LMPD officers targeted Taylor’s apartment as part of a larger narcotics investigation, looking for cash and drugs they believed her ex-boyfriend was sending there. Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were in bed watching TV when they heard pounding on the door.

When police burst in, Walker fired one round from his legally owned handgun, later saying he thought intruders were breaking in. Police fired 32 rounds in response, hitting Taylor, who was unarmed, six times in her hallway and killing her.

In an email, LMPD Spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said the records were being withheld because they were considered “preliminary records where the chief’s findings were not adopted from those records.”

The email also notes “findings letters from the major, lieutenant and investigative sergeant” are also considered preliminary.

Michael Abate, a First Amendment lawyer who also represents The Courier Journal, said LMPD’s continued insistence on withholding documents fails to comply with the law.

Out of 20 interviews conducted with involved officers and other witnesses, LMPD released only one page of all the interview transcripts. Of that page, all but one sentence was not redacted.

“It’s been clear for a long time that when they do an investigation and it concludes — either with disciplinary action or a decision not to take any action — they have to give us the file, the entire thing,” Abate said. “They can’t artificially limit what they released by claiming some of it wasn’t relied upon.”

Abate pointed to a March decision by Jefferson Circuit Judge Brian Edwards, who sided with WDRB News over LMPD, ruling the department must turn over records indirectly used to make the police chief’s ultimate decision in a different disciplinary case.

Given the international interest in Taylor’s death, Abate said it’s “incredibly important” for the public to have a full understanding of what happened.

“For the longest time, they told us we couldn’t have anything because it was still ongoing,” Abate said, “and now they’re telling us we can never have it because it was just preliminary.

“It’s part of a concerted attempt, since Day 1, to misuse exceptions in the open-records law to prohibit the public from understanding.”

It’s not the first time LMPD has withheld disciplinary records related to the Taylor case.

Just last week, LMPD withheld large swaths of records in the Professional Standards Unit investigation into Kimberly Burbrink, a major demoted to lieutenant for asking about the Taylor case after being ordered not to.

In October, the department released heavily redacted previous disciplinary records for the officers involved in the shooting.

While LMPD once again withheld an untold number of pages in the Taylor disciplinary inquiry, the investigative file does reveal new information about the eight officers who were investigated.

Here’s what we learned.

‘Cannot allow them to continue to drag this portion along’

Sgt. Andrew Meyer took over the Professional Standards investigation in the Taylor case in August 2020, according to an investigative record he maintained. It also details all his efforts to set up interviews with involved officers, either directly or through their attorneys.

State law requires the department to give officers 48 hours notice before an interview, but the record shows some officers had several weeks’ notice and coordinated with Meyer as to when he could serve them.

For example, Cosgrove was served with his 48-hour notice on Oct. 14, but his interview wasn’t until Nov. 12. Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the March 13 raid at Taylor’s apartment and fired rounds that wounded her, was served Oct. 23; but he was not interviewed until Oct. 29.

On Nov. 24, Gentry sent an email “regarding the accommodations being made for these accused officers,” Meyer wrote. “She states we cannot allow them to continue to drag this portion along.”

After Gentry’s email, investigators completed interviews with the last four accused officers: Jaynes, Detective Wes Barton, Sgt. Kyle Meany and Detective Mike Campbell.

Meany, Campbell and Detective Tony James all were ultimately found in violation of department policies and received sanctions.

Meany, a member of the Place-Based Investigations unit that requested the warrant for Taylor’s apartment, was found in violation of the department policy guiding risk assessment and SWAT team response for a search warrant. He received a letter of reprimand.

While the SWAT team was used to conduct drug raids at several houses during the early morning hours of March 13, it was not deployed to Taylor’s apartment until after she had already been killed.

James and Campbell both received one-day suspensions for violating the department’s policy requiring the use of body cameras.

Mattingly, Barton and Lt. Shawn Hoover all were cleared of standards violations.

In September, LMPD confirmed to The Courier Journal that Detective Michael Nobles, who was on scene during the raid, also was under investigation.

Nobles was interviewed by investigators Nov. 16, but an Oct. 28 email from Meyer said the detective “will be eliminated as an accused member regarding this investigation.”

The email did not explain why, and records do not include any letter to Nobles notifying him he was under investigation.

Myles Cosgrove gave additional interview to AG’s office

Of the three officers who fired their weapons at Taylor’s apartment — Cosgrove, Mattingly and Detective Brett Hankison — it appears only Cosgrove gave an additional interview to attorney general’s investigators.

Hankison was fired in June 2020 — months before the standards investigation began — for “blindly” firing 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment. He did not give an interview to standards investigators.

Ultimately, Hankison was the only person indicted by the grand jury in the Taylor case. He faces three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment for firing shots into an occupied apartment next to Taylor’s.

His trial is set for Aug. 31 in Jefferson County. No one has been charged for shooting Taylor.

On Sept. 18, just three days before the grand jury presentation began, Cosgrove sat down with Detective Jeff Ogg from the Attorney General’s Office for about 90 minutes.

During the interview, Cosgrove reiterated statements he had previously made to LMPD investigators about sensory loss during the shooting.

At the threshold of Taylor’s apartment, Cosgrove said he was “immediately overwhelmed with bright flashes. And darkness. And what I would describe as a movie reel that’s doin’ that ticking where you see white and black, white and black.”

He later said it was like looking into the sun, and that he saw a “larger than normal human shadowy figure.”

He also said he reloaded his gun in the parking lot but got an overwhelming sense he shouldn’t have “because that magazine was probably full, and I’m just dropping a full magazine on the ground.”

When pressed on how many shots he thought he fired, Cosgrove said he wasn’t sure at the time.

“I think that I fired the very low count of four,” he said. “Or less. And that’s why I’m thinking I felt that urge that I made a mistake when I reloaded.”

In reality, Cosgrove fired until his .40-caliber Glock was empty. It holds 16 rounds.

LMPD updated incident report after releasing nearly blank copy

In June, LMPD released an incident report stemming from the shooting at Taylor’s apartment. The four-page report listed the time, date, case number, incident location and Taylor’s name, age and race.

But there was no narrative written about what had transpired, and other parts of the form had inaccurate information, The Courier Journal reported June 10. Though shot dead, her injuries were listed as “none” and the “no” box was checked for forced entry, even though officers used a battering ram to knock in her apartment door.

Records released as a part of the standards investigation and the previous criminal investigation now indicate LMPD updated the report in the face of the swift blowback that ensued, including from Mayor Greg Fischer, who called the flawed report “unacceptable.”

On June 11, an investigating officer added a note saying the file was a shell report with automatically generated information and it was “publicly released without knowledge or approval of the lead investigatory and prior to review for completion and accuracy.”

The next day, a note indicated the report would be unlocked so it could be corrected.

In the document released publicly, the narrative said only “PIU Investigation,” referring to the Professional Integrity Unit which was investigating Taylor’s death at that time.

After initially releasing a nearly blank incident report about the shooting at Taylor's apartment, LMPD subsequently updated the narrative portion.

But the new narrative adds more detail, with a favorable slant toward the officers.

It states as fact that officers knocked and announced their presence, which remains disputed by Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker and most neighbors.

It goes on to say that “while attempting to neutralize the immediate threat to officers’ lives, the listed victim (Taylor) sustained fatal gunshot injuries.

“The actions initiated by Kenneth Walker directly created the circumstances leading to the listed victim’s death.”

All charges against Walker have been dropped in the case with prejudice — meaning he cannot be charged again for the same incident — and he has sued police for wrongfully arresting him in the shooting.

Reach Tessa Duvall at [email protected] and 502-582-4059. Twitter: @TessaDuvall.