Posted on 08/04/2020 10:09:36 AM PDT by RandFan
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Despite mounting public pressure to file criminal charges nearly five months after Breonna Taylor’s death, prosecutors may face significant obstacles to bringing homicide-related charges against police officers who were shot at when sent to her house with a warrant, legal experts said.
Tensions have swelled in her home town and spread far afield as activists, professional athletes and social media stars push for action while investigators plead for more patience. The warrant also has been called into question and, with federal officials looking into potential civil rights abuses, the case could reach beyond the officers on the scene that night.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Louisville emergency medical tech studying to become a nurse, was shot multiple times March 13 after being roused from sleep by police at her door. The warrant was approved as part of a narcotics investigation into a suspect who lived across town, and no drugs were found at her home.
“It’s a tough issue. He has to figure out whether there’s probable cause to believe that there was an unreasonable use of force” by the officers, said Christopher Slobogin, director of the criminal justice program at Vanderbilt University. Slobogin said attorneys for the officers would certainly raise the warrant as a defense in a criminal case.
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(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
She wasn’t just “killed”. Her boyfriend initiated a firefight with police. Not that he was in the wrong, under the state’s Castle Doctrine, especially if they were plainclothes. But the media makes it out like she was just murdered in cold blood, igniting the passions of the ignorant.
If she was white would we be discussing this?
She was romantically involved with a drug dealer (not the guy she was with that night) who was running a large-scale drug operation. She was receiving FedEx packages of drugs at her apartment. The media makes it sound like the cops just pulled the address out of a hat and decided to execute a warrant.
There’s always an inconvenient back story with these race dramas, it seems.
The boyfriend says that the police did not announce themselves before entering Taylor’s apartment. The police say that they did. Somebody is lying.
The police body cameras should clear this up. Oh, wait. From the article: “The officers on the scene were not wearing body cameras and the department has said there is no video of the raid.”
That is inexcusable! This is 2020, not 1920. Body cameras are dirt cheap. Why were there no police body cameras?
Louisville is going to be destroyed, again... no matter what. Nothing short of Murder in the first degree will be enough for these nuts.
Derby is ruined. None of the Downtown hotels have guests coming. Who would? With a another mass riot waiting just around the corner.
This whole situation is sad.
*If* the cops were being fired upon and *if* what you’re saying about Fed Ex packages is true then it’s *highly* unlikely I’d vote guilty on any criminal charges brought against the cops.
Let me “revise and extend” my previous comment. In a nutshell, what happened was that there were 2 or 3 men who were known drug dealers that were running a drug supply house in a different neighborhood. Police monitored their actions on a pole camera. The interchangeably drove the same car that was used to transport drugs/money, etc. This car somehow kept making trips to the apartment where Ms. Taylor was killed. According to Louisville Police, they personally observed one of the drug dealers go to this apartment and pick up a USPS (not FedEx—my mistake) package and then transport the package back to the drug shop. The police also wrote in a search warrant that they confirmed that other packages were delivered to this address that were likely drug packages. The dispute arises b/c the local postal inspector claims that no “suspicious” packages were flagged, which seems like a PC phraseology. Bottom line: Ms. Taylor undoubtedly knew that her apartment was connected to a drug operation; her boyfriend fired at the cops first; a cop got shot by the boyfriend, which started the shooting; and the Louisville PD probably fired way too many bullets back in the apartment. In other words, the cops just hunted her down like Trayvon.
The US Postal Inspector says differently and that they had investigated her packages and they were not drugs.
So different agencies are saying different things.
Also, where is the proof of Fed-Ex shipments having been searched? Fed-Ex and UPS provide full cooperation to law enforcement so there should be documented evidence of these drug deliveries and it’s not on the warrant affidavit.
This is all that’s on the warrant:
9.) Affiant verified through a US Postal Inspector that Jamarcus Glover has been receiving packages at 3003 Springfield Drive #4. Affiant knows through training and experience that it is not uncommon for drug traffickers to receive mail packages at different locations to avoid detection from law enforcement. Affiant believes through training and experience, that Mr. J. Glover may be keeping narcotics and/or proceeds from the sale of narcotics at 3003 Springfield Drive #4 for safe keeping.
The Postal Inspector disputes this information
“But Tony Gooden said a different law enforcement agency asked his office in January to investigate whether Taylor’s home was receiving any potentially suspicious mail. After looking into the request, he said, the local office concluded that it wasn’t.
“There’s no packages of interest going there,” he said in an interview after WDRB News contacted him Friday.”
https://www.wdrb.com/in-depth/louisville-postal-inspector-no-packages-of-interest-at-slain-emt-breonna-taylor-s-home/article_f25bbc06-96e4-11ea-9371-97b341bd2866.html
This is why there is a problem.
Here’s the thing, USPS packages are all barcoded now and they all go through machines that read and record the barcode. So they know the origin of every package as it enters the mailstream.
If the PI says there were no suspicious packages, it’s because he knows when. where and whom mailed them. I have read elsewhere that they were Amazon shipments. It’s not uncommon for people to ship to a friend that lives in a better neighborhood with fewer porch pirates.
There is really no excuse for the officer to be ignorant of these realities or to use fudge wording he did on the warrant. It looks intentionally deceptive.
The effing Judge should know better also because it’s their effing job to ensure justice.
Here’s the thing that burns me. The officer clearly states in the warrant that that he as the affiant, confirmed with the PI that Glover was receiving packages at that address.
So that’s a lie according to the PI, it was a different agency.
But, the affiant could have received this info from the other agency, okay. But he deliberately did not disclose and disregarded the information that the PI found nothing suspicious. That’s a lie of omission.
The affiant also asserts, based on his experience that traffickers often ship drugs through the mail at multiple address and believes based on that experience and expertise that Taylor’s address is implicated.
Yet this experienced officer is apparently ignorant or too lazy to find out how to properly investigate and confirm said shipments.
Guess what else the experienced officer missed? An actual drug shipment shipped through USPS can be tracked back to the exact place and time the postage label was created and hello security cameras, ip addresses and other data leading up the supply chain.
Or did the police initiate the firefight by breaking through the door and not identifying themselves?
And one of those agencies has several members who shot an unarmed woman to death in a botched raid. What possible reason would they have to shade the truth? </sarcasm>
Let me preface this comment by noting that I am an attorney who has been involved in hundreds of drug cases. First, the post office never knows who the sender of the drug packages is. I have been involved in dozens of drug conspiracy cases where women like Ms. Taylor use their apartments as a receiving dock for drugs. In not one of these cases was the sender of the drugs ever identified. Second, the postal inspector used weasel words in his statement to the press. Third, according to the police, the leadership of a large drug conspiracy apparently was making frequent visits to the apartment where the shooting occurred. The police actually witnessed a large scale drug dealer pick up a package from this apartment. I’m sorry, but this case appears no different than the dozens of cases that I’ve been involved with. The only difference is the guy in the apartment opened fire on police, which resulted in a shootout. I would bet a large sum of money that Ms. Taylor was a part of the drug conspiracy, probably getting paid 500 or 1000 bucks for every package that was delivered.
I think we should wait to hear the side of the story from the police officers. Let’s be clear: Ms. Taylor was undoubtedly assisting a major drug conspiracy in Louisville Kentucky. According to the warrant, leaders in a drug conspiracy were seen frequenting her apartment. On one occasion, the police actually saw one of these major drug dealers pick up a package from the apartment and drive directly to a drug house. Drug dealers typically use women in their operations, as they draw less suspicion from the police. I don’t like to see anybody killed. However, when you are involved in the drug trade, you know the risk.
If that package was sent with metered postage, online postage, 3rd party vendor postage the post office absolutely knows when and where that postage was created, the IP address, the account holder and the card or bank that is billed.
Somebody just isn’t asking the right questions of the right people.
Because drug dealers never shop on Amazon??? If they don’t know what was in the package then they are just blowing smoke up the judge’s ass.
PI says they investigated her mail and found nothing. He will make an interesting witness in the wrongful death suit detailing how the postal investigation was done and the results.
Don’t you find it just a little suspicious that the leaders of a local drug conspiracy seem to find their way to her apartment frequently? And that one of these drug dealers picked up a package from her apartment? I read the postal inspector’s statement. It is not a definitive statement. I certainly will keep an open mind, because it is not unheard of for police officers to take shortcuts with search warrants. However, there is one underlying thread throughout all of these cases involving Black people who are killed by the police: the media never tells us the full story, and always leaves out parts that are favorable to the police officer.
Body cameras are dirt cheap.
Can you clarify?
Local news referred to new purchase of body cameras, and it sounded like they were about $800 each.
That is NOT dirt cheap-—unless you are referring to San Francisco prices for real estate.
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