Court to release grand jury deliberations in Taylor case
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky’s attorney general acknowledged that he never recommended homicide charges against any of the police officers conducting the drug raid that led to Breonna Taylor’s death, and said he didn’t object to a judge’s order to publicly release the grand jury’s deliberations.
Amid outrage over the jury’s decision last week to not charge any of the officers for Taylor’s fatal shooting, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he would agree with a judge’s order to make public a record of the proceedings, and that he wouldn’t object if members of the panel want to speak publicly about their experience.
“We have no concerns with grand jurors sharing their thoughts on our presentation because we are confident in the case we presented,” Cameron said in a written statement.
A judge ordered the record released during the arraignment hearing for former Officer Brett Hankison, the lone detective indicted by the grand j ury on charges of wanton endangerment. Hankison, who was fired from the force for his actions during the raid, pleaded not guilty Monday.
Cameron said the grand jury is meant to be a “secretive body,” but it’s apparent that the public interest in this case isn’t going to allow that to happen.”
The attorney general said a record of the proceedings would be released Wednesday, and that the public “will see t hat over t he course of 21⁄ days, our team
2 presented a thorough and complete case to the grand jury.”
An attorney for Taylor’s family reiterated the need to release the complete record.
“Since the grand jury decision was announced, we’ve been saying that Daniel Cameron clearly failed to present a comprehensive case that supported justice for Breonna,” attorney Ben Crump said in a news release Tuesday.
In his statement Monday, Cameron also revealed that the only charge he recommended to the jury was wanton endangerment.
The public also deserves to know if any other criminal charges were explored by the grand jury aside from that recommendation, said attorney Kevin Glogower, who is representing a grand juror who sued on Monday to have the recordings released and to allow the panel’s members to talk publicly about their experiences.
The motion filed by the grand juror to release the panel’s proceedings accused Cameron of “using the grand jury to deflect accountability and responsibility for (the indictment) decisions.”