In a highly unusual act, an unidentified member of the Breonna Taylor grand jury has made a motion in Kentucky State Court requesting the release of the grand jury transcripts, claiming the Attorney General misrepresented the proceedings, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
Stating that the juror made the request so “the truth will prevail,” the juror accused Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron of using grand jury secrecy “as a shield to deflect accountability and responsibility for those decisions” and says that has led to “more seeds of doubt in the process.”
The grand jury indicted only one of the three officers involved in the execution of a no-knock warrant in which an unarmed Breonna Taylor was shot six times, resulting in her death.
Former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison was indicted on three counts of wanton endangerment for firing more than ten rounds blindly through a plate-glass sliding door which had a curtain across it. None of his shots hit anyone, but a number of his rounds went through the walls of Taylor’s apartment and into an adjoining residence in which three people were sleeping, prompting the three counts.
“The full story and absolute truth of how this matter was handled from beginning to end is now an issue of great public interest and has become a large part of the discussion of public trust throughout the country,” Kevin Glogower, the attorney for the juror, said in the motion.
Protests erupted around the nation in response to the grand jury’s decision not to indict anyone for Taylor’s homicide.
Prosecutors can purposefully direct a grand jury into selecting who gets indicted or the specific charges by selectively presenting evidence or allowing witnesses to testify before the grand jury.
Along with the release of the transcripts, the grand juror seeks the authority to discuss deliberations undertaken by the grand jury to determine what charges were filed.
Cameron claimed other charges weren’t filed “because our investigation showed, and the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove are justified in the return of deadly fire, after having been fired upon by Kenneth Walker.”
In filing the motion, the grand juror noted jurors questioned the “justification” of the shooting of Taylor, citing for example, that twelve witnesses claimed they did not hear the police announce themselves before breaching the door, while Cameron told them to rely on one witness who did because he thought it was the ‘more pertinent question is what was the evidence provided to the grand jury.”