LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky police detective who sought the no-knock search warrant that led to the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor has had his firing upheld.
The Louisville Metro Police Merit Board voted 4-0 on Wednesday to uphold the termination of Joshua Jaynes after hours of deliberation, news outlets reported. The decision came after three days of hearings in which Jaynes and his attorney sought his reinstatement.
Jaynes obtained the warrant for the March 13, 2020, drug raid in which Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician, was killed.
He was fired in January by former interim Police Chief Yvette Gentry, who said he was “untruthful” about how he obtained some information about Taylor in the warrant.
In an interview last year with Louisville police investigators, Jaynes acknowledged that he did not personally verify that a drug-trafficking suspect was receiving mail at Taylor’s apartment, even though he had said in an earlier affidavit that he had. Jaynes said he relied instead on information from a fellow officer.
His lawyer, Thomas Clay, argued that Jaynes did not lie on the affidavit and did not have a responsibility to verify information from a fellow law enforcement officer before putting it in his affidavit.
Jaynes will appeal the merit board ruling to circuit court after the official order is issued, Clay said.
