Federal judge gives ex-officer nearly 3 years in Breonna Taylor raid

By DYLAN LOVAN LOUISVILLE Ky AP A federal judge on Monday sentenced an ex-Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid declining a Justice Department recommendation that he be given no prison time Related Articles Ecuadorian drug lord Fito pleads not guilty after being extradited to New York Appeals court orders new trial for man convicted in Etan Patz event Jimmy Buffett s widow accuses financial adviser of breaching fiduciary duty in M trust battle Illegal immigrant arrested for allegedly shooting CBP officer in NYC was desired in Massachusetts for armed kidnapping robbery Malcolm-Jamal Warner Cosby Show actor dies in Costa Rica drowning Brett Hankison who fired shots during the raid but didn t hit anyone was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman s death He is the first person sentenced to prison in the episode that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality five years ago U S District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings sentenced Hankison at a hearing Monday afternoon She announced that no prison time is not appropriate for Hankison and announced she was startled that there weren t more people injured in the raid THIS IS A EMERGING NEWS UPDATE AP s earlier story follows below LOUISVILLE Ky AP A federal judge prepared Monday afternoon to sentence an ex-Kentucky police officer convicted of using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid days after the U S Justice Department recommended he receive no prison time in the Black woman s fatal shooting Brett Hankison fired his weapon the night of the March botched drug raid His shots didn t hit or injure anyone but flew through Taylor s walls into a neighboring apartment The -year-old s death along with the May police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked racial injustice protests nationwide that year Though the sentence could amount to several years if U S District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings heeds the Justice Department s request it would mean none of the Louisville police officers involved in the raid would face prison time Last week the U S Justice Department recommended no prison time for Hankison in an abrupt about-face by federal prosecutors that has angered critics after the department spent years prosecuting the former detective The Justice Department which has changed leadership under President Donald Trump since Hankison s conviction stated in a sentencing memo last week that there is no need for a prison sentence to protect the society from Hankison Federal prosecutors suggested time already served which amounts to one day and three years of supervised probation Prosecutors at his previous federal trials aggressively pursued a conviction against Hankison arguing that he blindly fired shots into Taylor s windows without identifying a target Taylor was shot in her hallway by two other officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment striking an officer in the leg Neither of the other officers was charged in state or federal court after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment Louisville police used a drug warrant to enter the apartment but determined no drugs or cash inside A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in In their new sentencing memo federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison s response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor her boyfriend her neighbors defendant s fellow officers or anyone else Civil rights attorney Ben Crump who helped Taylor s family secure a million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville has called the Justice Department recommendation an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury s decision He added in a social media post that it sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity On Monday the Louisville Metro Police Department arrested four people in front of the courthouse who it announced were creating confrontation kicking vehicles or otherwise creating an unsafe atmosphere Personnel didn t list the charges those arrested would face We understand this situation caused pain and damaged trust between our department and the population a police report noted We particularly respect and value the st Amendment However what we saw nowadays in front of the courthouse in the street was not safe acceptable or legal A U S Probation Office presentencing review reported Hankison should face a range of to months imprisonment on the excessive force conviction according to the memo But federal prosecutors reported multiple factors including that Hankison s two other trials ended with no convictions should greatly reduce the expected punishment The memorandum was submitted by Harmeet Dhillon chief of the Justice Department s Civil Rights Division and a Trump political appointee who in May moved to cancel settlements with Louisville and Minneapolis that had called for overhauling their police departments In the Taylor occurrence three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant but have not gone to trial None were at the scene when Taylor was shot