LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The fired Louisville Metro Police detective, Brett Hankison, one of the key figures in the botched raid on Breonna Taylor's south end apartment, wants the data from her cell phone.
However, her mother and her longtime attorney said it's another attempt to smear Taylor's name.
It's part of a new motion filed on July 5 for his upcoming federal trial.
Hankison is charged with depriving Taylor and her neighbors of their civil rights -- and using excessive force -- when he randomly fired 10 rounds into each of their apartments during the botched raid on March 13, 2020.
He requested access to Taylor's phone in an effort to recover information they claim can show whether she knew about an ongoing series of raids on the night she was killed.
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Hankison's attorneys said about 15 minutes had elapsed between the first raids in another part of town, and then the raid at 12:40 a.m. on Taylor's apartment. In the motion, they argued that is more than enough time for others to notify her, which would mean Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenny Walker, knew it was police knocking and were not surprised when police burst in the door.
The motion said law enforcement officials have had Taylor's phone since the raid and have made several attempts to recover the data, but have failed to do so.
Hankison's attorneys asked the judge to grant their expert one hour with the phone to verify whether the phone is truly compromised.
Hankison's trial is expected to begin in federal court on Oct. 14, prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office.
Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, and her longtime attorney Lonita Baker released the following statement to WHAS11 News:
"I am very disturbed by this additional attempt of Hankison to smear Breonna's name by insinuating that someone tipped Breonna off that police were coming to her home for a search. This couldn't be furthest from the truth and if it had any merit, law enforcement would have already presented such proof, just as Joshua Jaynes, Kyle Meany, and Kelly Goodlett did when they conspired to cover up what happened to Breonna by leaking other images and information from Kenny's phone in order to tarnish Breonna's and Kenny's name. The information Hankison claims to be looking for could have been obtained from (ex-boyfriend) Jamarcus Glover's phone if he really thought it existed but he knows it doesn't. Further and most importantly, nothing found in Breonna's phone negates the fact that Hankison fired blindly into windows where he could not see and placed five people's lives at risk and resulted in the murder of Breonna - violating all of their civil rights."
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