On Friday, Jessie Halladay, special consultant to the Louisville Metro Police Department, defended the original charges.
” Officers have to make the best choices they can with the info they have at the time,” she said in a statement. “We appreciate that the county lawyer concurred that the officers in this case had probable cause to make the charges they did.”
Authorities officers shot and killed Ms. Taylor, 26, a lifesaver, on March 13 after three officers used a no-knock warrant to enter her home with a battering ram during a late-night drug investigation.
The Louisville police have fired one of the officers associated with the shooting, Brett Hankison, stating he broke their policy on making use of fatal force by “wantonly and blindly” firing 10 shots in Ms. Taylors apartment or condo. The officers have not been charged, sustaining everyday demonstrations in Louisville and in cities throughout the nation.
Jacey Fortin and Allyson Waller contributed reporting.
The protesters were asked to leave the residential or commercial property and were told that remaining would be “unlawful,” the authorities said in a statement. The departments choice to charge them with felonies for “frightening a participant in the legal procedure” has been widely slammed as a disproportionately extreme action to a serene demonstration.
Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., said that felony intimidation charges are generally filed versus somebody who attempts to daunt witnesses or jurors in a lawsuit. He called using this or any felony charge to protesters who gather on the property of a public authorities “unusual.” Together with jail time, a felony conviction comes with other lifelong consequences.
Though the felony charge will be expunged from the protesters records, they might still face misdemeanor charges, the Jefferson County Attorneys Office said.
Until Freedom, a social justice group included in arranging Tuesdays demonstration, stated on its Facebook page that it would combat the possible misdemeanor charges– criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct– also.
” We are delighted to see that authorities came to their senses for now and dropped the phony felony charge against the Louisville 87,” the group composed, calling the felony charges an attempt to daunt the protesters and “create a distraction from our message: apprehend the cops who murdered #BreonnaTaylor.”
District attorneys have dropped felony charges against 87 protesters who in harmony gathered today outside the Kentucky attorney general of the United Statess house to require charges against the law enforcement officer accountable for the death of Breonna Taylor.
Mike OConnell, the Jefferson County attorney, stated on Friday that after carefully reviewing the appropriate law, he had decided to dismiss the felony charges proposed by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
” While we do believe the L.M.P.D. had probable cause for the charge, in the interest of justice and the promotion of the totally free exchange of concepts, we will dismiss that charge for each protester jailed this past Tuesday,” he said in a declaration.
More than 100 individuals participated in the demonstration on Tuesday, which started at Ballard High School in eastern Louisville and ended on the front yard of Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general of the United States. There, cops arrested 87 protesters consisting of Leslie Redmond, the president of the N.A.A.C.P.s Minneapolis chapter; the Houston Texans pass receiver Kenny Stills; and Porsha Williams, a member of the cast of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”
Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., stated that felony intimidation charges are normally submitted against someone who attempts to daunt witnesses or jurors in a court case. Along with jail time, a felony conviction comes with other long-lasting repercussions.
