“First, Goodlett admitted that she knew the affidavit in support of the search warrant at Taylor’s home was false, misleading and stale,” the DOJ said in a statement. “Second, Goodlett admitted that she and the other detective conspired to obstruct justice by providing false information to investigators after Taylor’s shooting and death.” Goodlett was accused, along with three other officers, earlier this month of filing a false affidavit to search Taylor’s home without probable cause before the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department raid and then creating a “false cover story in an attempt to escape responsibility for their roles in the preparation of the warrant affidavit that contained false information,” according to court documents. Goodlett is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 22, according to court records. He could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Goodlett is expected to testify against two former colleagues, Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany. A third former detective, Brett Hankison, is charged in a separate federal indictment, The Courier-Journal reports. In her plea agreement, Goodlett said she knew the affidavit in support of the warrant falsely alleged that the target of the warrant, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, was receiving packages from the US Postal Service at Taylor’s home, according to the DOJ. He also said officers knew the suspect did not live at Taylor’s home and had not visited in weeks, the department said. The former officer also admitted to providing false information to investigators after Taylor’s death in an attempt to cover up the misleading information in the warrant, the DOJ said. A trial for Jaynes and Meany is scheduled for Oct. 11, 2022, court records show. Hankison’s trial is set for Oct. 13. The charges filed earlier this month were the first federal charges against any of the officers involved in the raid. In addition to civil rights offenses, federal authorities charged the defendant with unlawful conspiracy, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Taylor, an emergency room technician, was shot and killed in her apartment during a botched forced entry raid in the early morning hours of March 13, 2020. Her death, along with that of other black people at the hands of law enforcement — including George Floyd in Minnesota and Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia — sparked a summer of protests calling for police reform. Prosecutors charged only Hankison in connection with the shooting. LMPD fired Hankison in June 2020, and in September 2020, a grand jury indicted Hankison on three felony counts of wanton endangerment for blindly firing 10 shots into Taylor’s home. A jury acquitted Hankison of all charges in March. Hankison allegedly “deliberately used unconstitutionally excessive force … when he fired his service weapon into Taylor’s apartment through a covered window and a covered glass door.” He is federally accused of depriving Taylor and a guest at her home “of their constitutional rights by shooting through a bedroom window that was covered by blinds and a blackout curtain,” according to the US Department of Justice. The 46-year-old detective also faces charges of depriving three of Taylor’s neighbors of their constitutional rights because, according to the indictment, the bullets he fired went through a wall at Taylor’s home and into an adjacent apartment. CNN’s Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
