A federal judge cleared two former Louisville police officers of felony charges in connection to Breonna Taylor’s fatal shooting and instead faulted Taylor’s boyfriend for her death.

In an order Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson dropped felony “deprivation of rights under the color of law” charges against former Louisville Police Detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany. 

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland first announced federal charges against Jaynes and Meany in August 2022 during a high-profile visit to Louisville. Garland accused Jaynes and Meany, who were not present during the fatal 2020 police raid of Taylor’s apartment, of knowing they had falsified part of the warrant and put the 26-year-old Black woman in a dangerous situation by sending armed officers to her door. 

Simpson declared that the actions of Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who fired a shot at police the night of the raid, were the legal cause of her death, not a bad warrant.

The city of Louisville in December 2022 agreed to pay Walker $2 million to settle lawsuits filed in state and federal court while anti-police protests engulfed the nation following George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. 

When police carrying out a drug warrant broke down Taylor’s door in March 2020, Walker fired a shot that struck an officer, former Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, in the leg. Walker said he believed an intruder was bursting in. Officers returned fire, striking and killing Taylor in her hallway. Simpson concluded that Walker’s “conduct became the proximate, or legal, cause of Taylor’s death.”

In the ruling last week, the judge said “there is no direct link between the warrantless entry and Taylor’s death.” 

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“While the indictment alleges that Jaynes and Meany set off a series of events that ended in Taylor’s death, it also alleges that (Walker) disrupted those events when he decided to open fire” on the police, Simpson wrote.

The judge effectively reduced the civil rights violation charges against Jaynes and Meany, which had carried a maximum sentence of life in prison, to misdemeanors.

Simpson declined to dismiss a conspiracy charge against Jaynes and another charge against Meany, who is accused of making false statements to FBI investigators.

“We are very pleased by the court’s ruling,” Meany’s attorney, Brian Butler, told the Louisville Courier Journal. 

“This dismissal places the burden on the United States as to how to proceed on the dismissal of this order,” Jaynes’ attorney, Thomas Clay, told the Journal.

“Obviously we are devastated at the moment by the Judge’s ruling with which we disagree and are just trying to process everything,” Taylor’s family said in a statement on Friday, according to WLKY. 

“The Assistant United States Attorneys on the case have informed us of their plan to appeal,” the statement added. “The only thing we can do at this point is continue to be patient. The appeal will extend the life of the case but as we’ve always maintained, we will continue to fight until we get full justice for Breonna Taylor.”

The Justice Department said in an email to The Associated Press that it “is reviewing the judge’s decision and assessing next steps.”

Former Police Sgt. Kyle Meany testifies, Feb. 23, 2022, in Louisville. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, Pool)

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A third former officer charged in the federal warrant case, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in 2022 to a conspiracy charge and is expected to testify against Jaynes and Meany at their trials.

Federal prosecutors alleged Jaynes, who drew up the Taylor warrant, had claimed to Goodlett days before the warrant was served that he had “verified” from a postal inspector that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor’s apartment. But Goodlett knew that was false and told Jaynes the warrant did not yet have enough information connecting Taylor to criminal activity, prosecutors said. 

She added a paragraph saying the suspected drug dealer was using Taylor’s apartment as his current address, according to court records. Two months later, when the Taylor shooting was attracting national headlines, Jaynes and Goodlett met in Jaynes’ garage to “get on the same page” before Jaynes talked to investigators about the Taylor warrant, court records said.

A fourth former officer, Brett Hankison, was also charged by federal prosecutors in 2022 with endangering the lives of Taylor, Walker and some of her neighbors when he fired into Taylor’s windows.

A state jury acquitted Hankison on wanton endangerment charges in 2022. 

A photo of Breonna Taylor is seen during the 2nd Annual Defend Black Women March in Black Lives Matter Plaza on July 30, 2022, in Washington, D.C.  (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Frontline Action Hub)

A federal trial last year on alleged civil rights violations ended with a hung jury. Hankison is scheduled to be retried on those charges in October.

Clay told the Journal that the Justice Department was waiting for the outcome of Hankison’s October re-trial before proceeding to schedule the trial of Jaynes and Meany. 

FBI ballistics determined that former Louisville Detective Myles Cosgrove likely fired the bullet that killed Taylor. 

He and Mattingly were not indicted on any charges by a state grand jury in 2020, and a two-year investigation by the FBI also cleared Cosgrove and Mattingly of any criminal wrongdoing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The boys from Lake Mary, Florida walked it off against Chinese Taipei in extra innings to win the Little League World Series, 2-1, in thrilling fashion on Sunday night. 

A Florida team was 0-8 in LLWS title games all-time, but Lake Mary had been fighting tooth and nail throughout this series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, facing four elimination games just to reach the final against the squad from Taoyuan, Taiwan – a squad that didn’t lose any of the five games they’ve played since hitting the States. 

After Lathan Norton finished his 3.2 innings with a scare, as Taoyuan’s Hu Yen-Chun flew out to the warning track in the top of the eighth inning, he went to second base to begin the bottom of the eighth in a 1-1 game. 

The last hitter in Lake Mary’s lineup, Hunter Alexander, came up in a clear bunt scenario, where he was only thinking about moving Norton over to third base. 

But Taoyuan, perhaps the team with the best fundamentals in the tournament, didn’t have someone covering first base when Alexander laid down his bunt to the right side. 

The ball was thrown away, and Lake Mary celebrated immediately as Norton came around third base for the winning run. 

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Southeast Region pitcher Jacob Bibaud (12) reacts with infielder DeMarcos Mieses (25) against Asia-Pacific Region in the first inning at Lamade Stadium. (Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports)

However, despite just winning the whole thing, the Lake Mary squad was seen giving out hugs and pats on the back to their Taoyuan opponents, who were distraught about how everything ended. It was the definition of sportsmanship before it was time to hoist the trophy. 

What made this victory for Lake Mary more impressive was the bottom of the sixth inning where they were down 1-0 despite having numerous runners on base throughout the game. 

DJ Mieses hit an RBI double and Chase Anderson came flying around the bases to score, forcing extra innings. Mieses’ reaction said it all, as he was firing up his dugout and the crowd. 

Lake Mary faced elimination twice in the semifinal on Saturday night against the Southwest Region representatives from Boerne, Texas, but their fourth and final elimination game ended with a 10-7 victory. 

Southeast Region celebrate after the game against Asia-Pacific Region at Lamade Stadium. (Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports)

These boys have been resilient, and they were rewarded with this once-in-a-lifetime victory that makes state history in the process. 

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Florida’s tourism marketing agency recently removed the “LGBTQ Travel” section from its website. 

The change was made to the “Visit Florida” website sometime in the last few months, the Associated Press reported. 

NBC News, which first reported the news, found that LGBTQ+ listings still populate even though the section has been deleted. The link where the LGBTQ Travel page was now directs users to a general “things to do” landing page, NBC reported, and it’s not clear when the section was removed, although it was still accessible in mid-April.

The “Visit Florida” website is a public-private partnership between the state of Florida and the state’s tourism industry, the AP reported. Florida contributes around $50 million from two tourism and economic development funds per year. 

The LGBTQ+ section of the website previously read: “There’s a sense of freedom to Florida’s beaches, the warm weather and the myriad activities — a draw for people of all orientations, but especially appealing to a gay community looking for a sense of belonging and acceptance,” according to the AP.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been at the forefront of the culture wars, signing into law legislation that restricted discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, as well as laws that ban minors from attending live performances of drag shows and prohibit anyone under age 18 from undergoing sex-reassignment surgeries or taking cross-sex hormones to treat gender dysphoria, which are both currently blocked amid ongoing litigation. 

In the wake of such laws, several civil rights groups issued a travel advisory for Florida, describing DeSantis and Florida lawmakers as “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”

Key West, Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors and St. Petersburg are all top U.S. destinations for the LGBTQ+ community, the AP reported.

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DeSantis dismissed the “stunt” in May, claiming recent tourist travel data shows Florida has never been more popular for all travelers.

Florida is among the top tourist destinations in the country.   (iStock)

“As Governor DeSantis announced … Florida is seeing record-breaking tourism,” DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern told Fox News Digital in 2023. “This is nothing more than a stunt.” 

Visit Florida CEO Dana Young previously told Fox News Digital that Florida is “one of the safest places in the country” and has been ranked as having among the most Black-owned businesses of any state.

“Tourism is our number one industry, and we are diverse and welcoming to everyone. We don’t discriminate on any basis. We welcome everyone to our state,” Young said. “Many of our destinations in the state have huge Pride festivals, and, you know, I think the diversity of our state is one of the reasons that people enjoy coming.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Visit Florida for comment, but did not immediately hear back. 

Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.