Judge gives ex-officer nearly 3 years in Breonna Taylor raid, rebuffs DOJ call for no prison time

LOUISVILLE Ky AP A federal judge on Monday sentenced a former Kentucky police officer to nearly three years in prison for using excessive force during the deadly Breonna Taylor raid rebuffing a U S Department of Justice recommendation of no prison time for the defendant Brett Hankison who fired shots during the raid but didn t hit anyone was the only officer on the scene charged in the Black woman s death He is the first person sentenced to prison in the incident that rocked the city of Louisville and spawned weeks of street protests over police brutality that year U S District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings in sentencing Hankison commented no prison time is not appropriate and would minimize the jury s verdict from November Jennings commented she was startled there weren t more people injured in the raid from Hankison s blind shots She sentenced Hankison to months in prison for the conviction of use of excessive force with three years of supervised probation to follow the prison term He will not account directly to prison The U S Bureau of Prisons will determine where and when he starts his sentence Jennings reported The judge who presided over two of Hankison s trials expressed disappointment with a sentencing recommendation by federal prosecutors last week saying the Justice Department was treating Hankison s actions as an inconsequential crime and announced particular of its arguments were incongruous and inappropriate Civil rights attorney Ben Crump who helped Taylor s family secure a million wrongful death settlement against the city of Louisville had called the department s recommendation an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor and a blatant betrayal of the jury s decision Crump was at Monday s hearing and explained he had hoped for a longer sentence but was grateful that Hankison is at least going to prison and has to think for those years about Breonna Taylor and that her life mattered Afterward before a crowd outside the courthouse Crump sounded a familiar chant Say Her name The crowd yelled back Breonna Taylor And he and other members of Taylor family s legal club issued a subsequent report criticizing the Justice Department While nowadays s sentence is not what we had hoped for nor does it fully reflect the severity of the harm caused it is more than what the Department of Justice sought That in itself is a declaration the message reported Hankison s shots the night of the March botched drug raid flew through the walls of Taylor s apartment into a neighboring apartment narrowly missing a neighboring family The -year-old s death along with the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked racial injustice and police brutality protests nationwide that year But the Justice Department under new leadership since President Donald Trump took office in January sought no prison time for Hankison in an abrupt about-face by federal prosecutors after the department spent years prosecuting the former detective They suggested time already served which amounted to one day and three years of supervised probation Taylor s mother Tamika Palmer noted she was disappointed that the new federal prosecutors assigned to the development were not pushing for a tougher sentence On numerous occasions inside the courtroom Monday lead federal prosecutor Rob Keenan agreed with Hankison s defense attorneys on factors that would decrease Hankison s punishment There was no prosecution in there for us Palmer noted afterward Brett had his own defense gang I didn t know he got a second one Taylor was shot in her hallway by two officers after her boyfriend fired from inside the apartment striking an officer in the leg Neither of the other officers was charged in state or federal court after prosecutors deemed they were justified in returning fire into the apartment Louisville police used a drug warrant to enter Taylor s apartment but ascertained no drugs or cash inside A separate jury deadlocked on federal charges against Hankison in and he was acquitted on state charges of wanton endangerment in In their latest sentencing memo federal prosecutors wrote that though Hankison s response in these fraught circumstances was unreasonable given the benefit of hindsight that unreasonable response did not kill or wound Breonna Taylor her boyfriend her neighbors defendant s fellow officers or anyone else Jennings acknowledged Monday that officers were provoked by Taylor s boyfriend s gunshot but noted that does not allow officers to then do what they want and then be excused While the hearing was going on Louisville police arrested four people in front of the courthouse who it stated were creating confrontation kicking vehicles or otherwise creating an unsafe atmosphere Executives didn t list charges against them Federal prosecutors had argued that multiple factors including that Hankison s two other trials ended with no convictions should greatly reduce the prospective punishment They also argued he would be susceptible to abuse in prison and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder The sentencing memorandum was submitted by Harmeet Dhillon chief of the Justice Department s Civil Rights Division and a Trump political appointee who in May moved to cancel settlements with Louisville and Minneapolis that had called for overhauling their police departments In the Taylor circumstance three other ex-Louisville police officers have been charged with crafting a falsified warrant but have not gone to trial None were at the scene when Taylor was shot The warrant used to enter her apartment was one of five issued that night in search of evidence on an alleged drug dealer that Taylor once had an association with