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.
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.
