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The Justice Department on Friday moved to dismiss its criminal case against two former Louisville police officers who were facing civil rights charges in connection with the shooting death of Breonna Taylor.
In a court filing Friday, lawyers from the Civil Rights Division said they are seeking to dismiss the pending case against Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany with prejudice, which means it could not be revived in the future. The judge has not yet ruled on the motion.
The filing was signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Robert Keenan and Acting Criminal Chief Katie Neff. No career prosecutors from the division’s criminal section signed the brief.
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police officers in March 2020 during a botched police raid at her home.
Both Jaynes and Meany were accused by the Justice Department of aiding and abetting the deprivation of Taylor’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Justice Department alleged that they lied to a Jefferson County state court judge in order to obtain the warrant for Taylor’s home.
Jaynes was accused of drafting a warrant affidavit based on both affirmative lies and lies by omission, while prosecutors alleged Meany signed off on the affidavit, though he knew it was based on lies.
A federal court on two separate occasions in 2023 and again in 2025 struck the Justice Department’s felony allegations against the two former officers, reducing them to misdemeanor color-of-law violations instead.
In its filing, the Civil Rights Division cited the two failed attempts by the government to obtain felony enhancements for the color-of-law charges as a factor in its decision to dismiss the case.
“In light of the foregoing proceedings, the Government undertook a further review of this matter. Based on that review, and in the exercise of its discretion, the government has determined that this case should be dismissed in the interest of justice,” the Civil Rights Division attorneys wrote in their filing.
The filing, however, did not mention the fact that other felony charges in the case were also still pending.
Meany was charged with making false statements during his interview with the FBI, a felony that has a statutory maximum of five years in prison.
Jaynes, meanwhile, also faced charges of conspiracy and falsification of records. The conspiracy charge stemmed from allegations he and another detective sought to cover up the false warrant affidavit after Taylor’s death.
“Kyle is incredibly grateful for today’s filings. He is looking forward to putting this matter behind him and moving forward with his life,” said Michael Denbow, an attorney for Meany.
An attorney for Jaynes could not be immediately reached for comment.
Attorneys for Taylor’s family Ben Crump and Lonita Baker said in a statement, “”Breonna Taylor always deserved more than the scraps of justice she got. Now, even those may be further stripped away. The Department of Justice’s move to dismiss these remaining charges is deeply painful for Breonna Taylor’s family and it sends a chilling message about the value of Black lives in our country.”
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said in a post on Facebook that she felt “extreme disappointment in Trump and the Department of Justice.” She said that she learned about the decision in a phone call.
“There’s been a lack of accountability just from the very beginning,” Palmer told CBS affiliate WLKY. “I don’t understand the people making decisions about whose life matters and who doesn’t.”
NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement, “We are sickened. Once again, Trump’s Justice Department is trampling over our civil rights and leaving impacted communities out in the cold.”
This marks the latest in a string of high-profile color-of-law cases that the Civil Rights Division has dismissed or sought lighter sentences for since last year.
Keenan, a longtime federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California who is now part of Dhillon’s senior leadership team, has been involved in most of the matters.
In one excessive force case in Los Angeles, he asked a judge to dismiss felony convictions against a local deputy sheriff — a move that prompted several prosecutors on the case to resign in protest.
He also asked a federal judge in Louisville last year to sentence former Louisville police officer Brett Hankison — who was convicted at trial for violating Taylor’s rights — to serve just one day in prison.
The judge rejected his request and sentenced Hankison to 33 months.
Earlier this month CBS reported that he is one of two staff members from the Civil Rights Division now assigned to investigate the shooting death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
