A Jefferson County attorney announced that the felony charges against nearly a hundred protesters have been dropped.
Eighty-seven protesters who marched to the home of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Tuesday were charged with intimidating a participant in the legal process, felony counts that attorney Mike O’Connell said were being dropped on Friday, according to WKLY. The protesters, who were demanding the prosecution of the law enforcement officers who fatally shot Breonna Taylor in March, were also charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and criminal trespass, which are still under review.
“While we do believe the LMPD had probable cause for the charge, in the interest of the justice and promotion of the free speech ideas, we will dismiss the charge for each protester arrested this past Tuesday,” O’Connell said in a statement.
He also said his office would be working with the people who were arrested, including Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, to expunge the felony charges from their records within 30 days after the dismissal.
Louisville Metro Police Department spokesperson Lamont Washington noted in a statement that the protesters who were chanting on Cameron’s lawn were given the opportunity to leave before getting arrested and that “at [Cameron’s] request, they were trespassed from the property.” He also explained that the charges against the demonstrators came “due to their refusal to leave the property and their attempts to influence the decision of the Attorney General with their actions.”
Taylor was an emergency medical technician who was asleep in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment when officers used a no-knock warrant to enter her home after midnight in March. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a warning shot with a gun when he thought intruders were breaking into the apartment. One of the officers who entered was shot in the leg. Three other officers responded by firing several shots into the apartment. Taylor was struck eight times and later died.
One of the three officers involved in Taylor’s death has been fired by the police department, but none have been charged yet.
“Officers have to make the best decisions they can with the information they have at the time, and we appreciate that the County Attorney agreed that the officers in this case had probable cause to make the charges they did,” LMPD said to WKLY in a statement after the felony charges were dropped. “The County Attorney must weigh several factors when considering next steps, and we respect the decision he announced today.”
