After reviewing thousands of pages concerning officers’ involvement in the death of Breonna Taylor, a Louisville investigator concluded that the entire debacle was based on a “misleading” affidavit used to obtain the search warrant for Taylor’s apartment, recommending possible criminal charges for the offending officer, WDRB reports.
Everyone knows the story by now:
Jamarcus Glover was Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend and a suspected drug dealer. A judge granted investigators a “no-knock warrant” after LMPD detectives and postal inspectors discovered Glover was receiving “suspicious packages” at Taylor’s home. They went to search the house, Taylor’s new boyfriend thought someone was trying to rob the apartment, so he shot through the door. The cops returned fire after one of the officers was wounded by Taylor’s boyfriend and Taylor was shot by one of the officers.
Except, as it turns out, none of that is true.
An internal review by an investigator with the department’s Public Integrity Unit determined that the officers investigating Glover never believed he was receiving packages at Taylor’s house. At every point during their investigation, evidence confirmed she was receiving, at most, packages from Amazon. The cops responsible for looking into Breonna’s mail concluded there was nothing out of the ordinary going on.
But when it came time to submit their evidence to a judge, Det. Joshua Jaynes swore on an affidavit used to obtain the infamous warrant, that he witnessed Glover leave Taylor’s apartment with an unusual box from the USPS. Jaynes’ written affidavit also said that officers had “verified through a US Postal Inspector that Jamarcus Glover has been receiving packages.”
There was only one problem with this story:
There was no postal inspector. The officers hadn’t talked to anyone from the Post Office, including Taylor’s mailman. And why didn’t they? Because, according to police documents, the officers who were investigating Taylor’s mail “repeatedly” told the LMPD narcotics officers that the 26-year-old ER tech wasn’t receiving packages for Glover.
That’s right. Not only did they determine that there weren’t any secret dope boxes for Glover, but they determined Taylor wasn’t receiving any packages, “suspicious or otherwise.” Taylor had received some regular mail for Glover, but no packages. However, Jaynes insinuated in his statement to Jefferson County Judge Mary Shaw that Glover regularly picked up “parcels” from Breonna Taylor’s home.
WDRB reports:
Jaynes’ interview shows that [LMPD St. Jonathan] Mattingly never contacted the postal inspector directly. Instead, he submitted the request through the Shively Police Department, which serves as a liaison between LMPD and the postal inspector because of “bad blood” between the two agencies.
In an interview with Louisville police investigators, Shively police Sgt. Timothy Salyer said he and Shively Detective Michael Kuzma got a text from Mattingly on Jan. 17 asking they check with a postal inspector to see if packages were being sent to Taylor’s home for Glover.
Both Shively officers say the postal inspector told them there were no packages being sent to Taylor’s home and that information was promptly and accurately relayed to LMPD.
After Taylor’s death, both Salyer and Kuzma became concerned when they read the warrant affidavit written by Jaynes. Salyer asked Mattingly about what Jaynes said in the affidavit.
“Sgt. Mattingly stated he told Detective Jaynes there was no package history at that address,” Salyer told investigators.
During the Public Integrity Unit investigation, Jaynes admitted that he “could have worded [the affidavit] a little bit different.”
Furthermore, the Shively officers had no idea that Jaynes’ included this lie in the request for a search warrant. Apparently knowing he had fucked up, Jaynes curiously started texting the Shively cops again asking them about Taylor’s invisible packages that never existed.
“It looks like you’re trying to cover your ass is what it appears to me,” the cops told investigators about Jaynes, who told investigators that he believed Taylor was involved in drug dealing because dope boys use women to hide their drugs and money and, according to Jaynes: “It’s usually baby-mamas or one child in common or it’s girlfriends that they can trust.”
This fucking guy.
“Investigators believe that the wording on the affidavit is misleading” concluded PIU investigator Jason Vance. “but given Jaynes statement related to the information should be reviewed for criminal actions.”
Of course, this information has been known by people involved with the investigation for months. But, for some reason, Attorney General Daniel Cameron chose not to present any of this evidence to a grand jury. There is, however, an ongoing federal investigation.
However, when people across America pleaded for authorities to arrest the person responsible for Breonna Taylor’s death...
Maybe we were talking about Joshua Jaynes this whole time.