LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Two Louisville Metro Police detectives are facing termination from the department months after 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was killed in her apartment.
Detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes will have hearings with Interim Chief Yvette Gentry before she finalizes their firings. Jaynes' attorney Thomas Clay said he and Jaynes will meet with Gentry on Monday, Jan. 4.
The search warrant that led to Taylor's death was signed by Jaynes. In his pre-termination letter, Gentry cites violation of department policy in how he prepared the warrant and "untruthfulness."
"I asked Mattingly 'Hey, did you hear anything back about our target Jamarcus Glover?' He's like 'Yeah, basically that they're doing an investigation on this guy for possible reversals,'" Jaynes said to investigators, according to LMPD's PIU investigative file video.
Jaynes explained to investigators how he verified with Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly that packages were being sent to Taylor's home by their main target, Jamarcus Glover. Attorney Kent Wicker and his client Mattingly, the officer who was hit in the leg and fired rounds the night Taylor was killed, claimed Jaynes' statement isn't true.
"Detective Jaynes got this information from Sgt. Mattingly," Jaynes' lawyer Thomas Clay said. "The conversation was overheard by Detective Jaynes' partner who verified his version what that conversation was."
Detective Kelly Goodlett who is a member of LMPD's Place-Based Investigations Unit worked with Jaynes. In her audio interview with the Kentucky Attorney General's Office she said Mattingly told them to check with Shively Police to make sure they're not working on the same target, Glover. She said she called an officer at that Shively Police Department.
"It ended up not being the same person so he was like work it if you want to it's not going to affect us," Goodlett said.
Goodlett backed Jaynes' claim that he checked with Mattingly to verify packages were being sent to Taylor's home by their main target, Glover.
"Sgt. Mattingly in passing was like sorry about the confusion I was misunderstood but he was getting packages there," Goodlett said.
When asked if there is other evidence to prove Jaynes checked with Mattingly before obtaining the search warrant, his attorney Thomas Clay said, "Other than the statements she gave to the Attorney General, which verified the details of what Sgt. Mattingly had said, I'm not aware of any physical evidence."
The FBI's ballistics report found Detective Myles Cosgrove fired the shot that killed Taylor. His attorney, Jarrod Beck, declined to comment on his pre-termination notice.
Louisville's Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) said once the hearings with the police chief are complete and the terminations are finalized, the detectives' attorneys will have 10 days to request a hearing from the Police Merit Board.
"This is just the process that is in place to ensure everyone gets their right to due process," president of River City Fraternal Order of Police, Ryan Nichols said in a past interview with WHAS11 News. Nichols explained how the firing process would work when former Detective Brett Hankison was fired from the police department in June. Nichols explained what a typical merit board hearing would look like.
"They'll review the evidence of that case and each side will be able to present testimony and subpoena, witnesses – it will function very much like a trial," Nichols said. "Then they'll take everything into account that was presented to them and then they will make their decision."
If the attorneys do not agree with the merit board's decision, they have the option to file an appeal in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
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