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Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was ‘offered a plea deal’ if he claimed she was involved in organised crime, documents reveal

Attorneys say ‘outrageous’ plan was rejected by former partner 

Gino Spocchia
Wednesday 02 September 2020 15:56 BST
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Attorney General in Breonna Taylor's case speaks at RNC

An accused drug trafficker and former boyfriend of Breonna Taylor was offered a plea deal that would have implicated her in crimes that took place weeks after her killing by police.

Sam Aguiar, a lawyer for Taylor’s family, shared a photo of a document outlining part of the preliminary deal on Facebook, which appeared to show her listed as a “co-defendant” in illegal activities leading up to 22 April, weeks after her death.

“Why would they put her name on there?” Mr Aguiar said in a statement. “It’s outrageous.”

“This goes to show how desperate Tom Wine ... is to justify the wrongful search of Breonna Taylor’s home, her killing and arrest of Kenneth Walker,” wrote the attorney in the post, referencing Taylor’s boyfriend at the time of her killing.

Mr Wine, the Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney, said in response that the document was a “draft that was part of pre-indictment plea negotiations.”

“Those drafts were never part of the court record and are not court documents,” continued the attorney. “I directed that Ms Breonna Taylor’s name be removed. The final plea sheet provided to Mr Glover’s counsel is attached and clearly does not include Ms Taylor as a Co-Defendant.”

Mr Glover – Taylor's ex boyfriend – and others were arrested on drug trafficking charges the night Taylor was shot.

"Breonna Taylor was never a Co-Defendant in the Jamarcus Glover case,” Mr Wine added.

Meanwhile, another lawyer representing the Taylor family, Lonita Baker, claimed that prosecutors in fact “tendered” the deal to Mr Glover and his attorney, but that he had rejected the deal.

That, according to The Hill, is why the plea deal implicating Taylor did not appear in court documents.

Taylor was fatally shot by police in her home on 13 March as they carried out a narcotics search warrant targeting Mr Glover.

The shooting has sparked months of protests in Louisville, which saw renewed attention following anger at the Minneapolis killing of an unarmed black man, George Floyd, in May.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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