A lawsuit filed on behalf of Breonna Taylor's family alleges that Louisville police may be lying about the existence of body camera footage from the raid that killed her.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday by the same attorney that netted Taylor's family a $12million wrongful death settlement against the Louisville Metro Police says the department may have given 'misinformation' when it said that there was no body camera footage from the botched March 13, 2020 drug raid during which officers fatally shot her.
Additionally, the suit alleges the LMPD is withholding records that might prove the existence of such body camera footage, WDRB reported.
Police have said that the only officer involved in the raid equipped with a body camera, Anthony James, had turned it off.
A lawsuit filed on behalf of Breonna Taylor's family alleges that the Louisville Metro Police lied when it said it did not have body camera footage of the March 13, 2020 drug raid that killed her
The suit, filed by attorney Sami Aguiar in the Jefferson Circuit Court, calls for a judge to order the department turn over records requested under Kentucky's open government law.
It alleges there were multiple officers on the scene issued body cameras both before and after the raid. Police have released some footage from the aftermath.
'Given that Metro was able to verify that certain LMPD members' body cameras were specifically assigned on March 13, 2020, there is a reasonable basis to believe that misinformation has been presented to the general public regarding the usage of body cameras,' the suit reads.
Police have released some footage of the aftermath of the botched raid, but have said there is none from when officers opened fire in Taylor's apartment
The suit alleges that Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison and Myles Cosgrove had all been issued body cameras before the botched raid, but the LMPD says it has no record of footage from them that night
The suit also alleges that the flashing lights from police vehicles on the scene should have automatically activated the department-issued Axon body cameras of any officers equipped with one on the scene.
The suit says, for example, that former officer Myles Cosgrove, was known to have activated the lights on his unmarked police vehicle.
'Simply put, it would have been difficult for most of the LMPD members with body cameras and who were associated with … events at Breonna's' home 'to not have had their Axon body cameras activated at one point or another,' the suit claims.
The records sought through the suit are a so-called 'audit trail' of any footage recorded on the night of Taylor's killing.
The 'audit trails should assist in verifying whether Metro has been truthful to the public regarding the existence of footage,' according to the suit.
Officers fired a total of 32 shots during the home invasion in March 2020
Only Hankinson was charged in Taylor's death after he shot blindly through her patio door
The botched raid did not net any drugs or money. Bulletholes can be seen on a doorframe leading to Taylor's bedroom
Aguiar alleges in the suit that Cosgrove, former Det. Brett Hankinson and former Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who was shot in the leg in the raid, among others on the scene had all been issued body cameras before the raid.
LMPD do not comment on ongoing litigation.
Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room tech, had been shot during an undercover drug raid at her apartment after her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, had opened fire on the officers, saying that he thought they were intruders.
Police fired a total of 32 shots in the the raid. It did not, however, net any drugs or money.
Only Hankinson has been charged with wanton endangerment in the shooting after he shot blindly through the patio door and window of Taylor's apartment.
He along Cosgrove were fired for violating department use-of-force policy.
Mattingly announced his retirement from the force in April.
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