LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Former Louisville police Detective Kelly Goodlett is expected to plead guilty later this month to charges in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor according to reporting from The Washington Post.
Goodlett is set to appear Aug. 22 before a federal judge to enter her plea, media outlets reported, citing her lawyer, Brandon Marshall. Marshall did not immediately return phone calls and emails seeking comment Friday.
Goodlett will plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate Taylor's civil rights for helping falsify an affidavit for the search of her apartment, the Courier Journal reported Friday. She faces a sentence of no more than five years in prison.
Federal charges were announced last week by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland against former Louisville police officers Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, along with Kelly Goodlett and Sgt. Kyle Meany, who at the time were still employed by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields immediately began formal termination procedures for Meany and Goodlett after the charges were announced. Goodlett instead chose to resign on Friday.
The charges range from unlawful conspiracies, use of force and obstruction of justice.
Goodlett, Jaynes' former partner, was charged on information, meaning she had likely agreed to a plea deal with the government. The FBI alleges she tried to cover up the fact that the information Jaynes provided for the search warrant that led to the deadly raid on Taylor's apartment was false.
Hankison, Jaynes and Meany had initial appearances last week in federal court before Magistrate Judge Regina Edwards, who set their bonds at $50,000 each, according to a court clerk official. The three men face a maximum sentence of life in prison for the civil rights charges.
All three men facing indictment pleaded not guilty.
Taylor was shot to death by Louisville officers who had knocked down her door while executing the search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door and they returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times.
Jaynes and Goodlett "falsified documents" after Breonna Taylor's death and later conspired to tell investigators false stories, Garland said last week.
A former detective, Jaynes was fired in Jan. 2021, and Louisville's Police Merit Board upheld his termination in June after an appeal.
Hankison, who was dismissed from the department in 2020, was one of the officers at Taylor’s door and one of three who fired shots that night. He was acquitted by a jury of state charges of wanton endangerment earlier this year in Louisville.
Meany, a former sergeant with LMPD, was indicted on conspiracy charges in connection to a meeting in a garage between Jaynes, Goodlett and Meany where they "agreed to tell investigators a false story."
The Justice Department is also conducting a non-criminal investigation of the Louisville Police Department. Announced last year, that probe is scrutinizing whether the department has a pattern of using excessive force and conducting unreasonable searches and seizures.
In the racial justice protests of 2020, Taylor’s name was often shouted along with that of George Floyd, who was killed less than three months after Taylor by a Minneapolis police officer in a videotaped encounter that shocked the nation.