Two Louisville Metro Police Department officers fired over their involvement in the Breonna Taylor case are appealing their termination.
Last month, interim Chief Yvette Gentry fired detectives Myles Cosgrove and Joshua Jaynes.
Gentry alleged Jaynes was untruthful in obtaining a warrant to search Taylor’s home, which police raided on March 13, 2020, in search of evidence against her ex-boyfriend. LMPD officers fatally shot Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, during the raid.
Cosgrove’s termination letter said he violated body camera and use-of-force policies, including failing to “verify a threat” or identify a target when he discharged his gun multiple times into Taylor’s apartment — ultimately firing the shot that killed Taylor, according to a ballistics report from an FBI lab.
“Despite your years of service, I cannot justify your conduct nor in good conscience recommend anything less than termination,” Gentry wrote in Cosgrove’s letter.
Dated Jan. 8, Jaynes’ request for the Police Merit Board to review his termination said the interim chief’s allegation was “not supported by substantial evidence.”
The document — provided by his attorney, Thomas Clay — also stated that Jaynes’ “procedural due process rights” were violated, and that his firing was “disproportionate when compared with discipline issued to other LMPD members for similar allegations.”
A Police Merit Board coordinator confirmed Cosgrove’s appeal over the phone. WFPL has not yet obtained the document.
A third LMPD officer, Brett Hankison, also was fired for his involvement in the deadly raid, during which he shot into Taylor’s home and a neighbor’s apartment. A grand jury indicted him on wanton endangerment charges for the bullets that entered the neighboring apartment, and a jury trial is scheduled for late August.
Hankison has also appealed his firing, but the merit board has not yet considered his case due to pending criminal charges.
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