Kenneth Walker, Louisville reach $2M settlement
Louisville reached a settlement with Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for $2 million this week, according to one of the parties who had been sued as part of the case.
Former Louisville Metro Police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the thigh by Walker as police burst through the door the night of the raid at Taylor’s apartment in 2020, confirmed the settlement to The Courier Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network, and said he and the other individual officers named in two civil lawsuits were released from having to pay.
Frederick Moore, an attorney representing Walker, couldn’t confirm the settlement or comment on the specifics of Monday’s federal court mediation until “details have been finalized.” City officials haven’t yet responded to The Courier Journal’s request for more information.
Joey Klausing, an attorney representing former Louisville Detective Kelly Goodlett, said his client was released from the lawsuit Monday with no payment requirement. Goodlett in August pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for her role in falsifying information used to obtain the search warrant on Taylor’s apartment.
Walker and Taylor, a 26-year-old unarmed Black woman, were asleep in her South End apartment on March 13, 2020 when Louisville officers attempted to serve a search warrant as part of a narcotics investigation. Walker, who has said he thought an intruder was breaking in, fired a single shot that hit Mattingly. Taylor was shot to death when police returned fire.
The shooting touched off protests in Louisville and across the country in 2020 over the killings of unarmed Black people and demands for police reform.
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In September 2020, Walker filed civil lawsuits in both state and federal court seeking punitive and compensatory damages against the city and several officers involved with the raid. It’s not yet clear if the settlement also satisfies the lawsuit filed in state court.
Walker claims his rights were violated when officers obtained and approved the “materially false” search warrant, failed to announce before they entered Taylor’s apartment and used excessive and unreasonable force. He also claims Louisville police’s policies, customs and practices led to these violations.
Walker was charged with assault and attempted murder of a police officer in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, but those charges were dismissed permanently in March 2021.
Walker’s civil suits named Goodlett, former detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany for their purported role in falsifying and covering up the bad information used to obtain the warrant. All three were charged with federal civil rights violations in August.
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Goodlett resigned from the department following the indictment. She admitted in her plea to falsely claiming a postal inspector verified Taylor was receiving packages for her ex-boyfriend, convicted drug dealer Jamarcus Glover, at her apartment before the raid. Glover was the subject of the narcotics investigation that resulted in Taylor’s death. Goodlett told investigators she met with Jaynes in his garage so they could “get on the same page” after a postal inspector said the claim was bogus, and Meany allegedly had knowledge of the false claim.
Also named in Walker’s lawsuits are former officers Myles Cosgrove, who shot at Taylor 16 times and was fired by Louisville police for failing to identify a target, Brett Hankison, whose return gunfire went into Taylor’s neighbor’s apartments, and Mattingly, who also returned fire at Walker. Hankison also faces federal charges for violating the civil rights of Taylor, Walker and three of Taylor’s neighbors.
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