Prosecutors have dropped the felony charges against 87 protesters who peacefully gathered this week outside the Kentucky attorney general’s home to demand charges against the police officers responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor.
Mike O’Connell, the Jefferson County attorney, said Friday that after carefully reviewing the relevant law, he had decided to dismiss the felony charges proposed by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“While we believe the LMPD had probable cause for the charge, in the interests of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas, we will reject that charge for every protester arrested last Tuesday,” he said in a statement.
More than 100 people attended the protest Tuesday, which started at Ballard High School in East Louisville and ended in the front yard of Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky attorney general. There, police arrested 87 protesters, including Leslie Redmond, president of the NAACP Minneapolis chapter; Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills; and Porsha Williams, cast member of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”.
Protesters were asked to leave the property and told that staying would be “illegal,” police said in a statement. The department’s decision to charge them with serious crimes for “intimidating a participant in the legal process” has been widely criticized as a disproportionately harsh response to a peaceful demonstration.
Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, said felony intimidation charges are generally brought against someone who attempts to intimidate witnesses or jurors in a case judicial. He called the application of this or any felony charge to protesters who gather on the property of an “unusual” public official. Along with prison time, a felony conviction carries other life-long consequences.
Although the felony charge will be removed from the protesters’ records, they can still face misdemeanor charges, the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said.
Even Freedom, a social justice group involved in organizing Tuesday’s protest, said on its Facebook page that it would also fight possible misdemeanor charges, such as criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.
“We are pleased to see that officials have come to their senses for now and dropped the false felony charge against Louisville 87,” the group wrote, calling the felony charges an attempt to intimidate protesters and “create a distraction from our message: I arrest the policemen who murdered #BreonnaTaylor. “
On Friday, Jessie Halladay, special adviser to the Louisville Metro Police Department, defended the original charges.
“Officers have to make the best decisions they can with the information they have at the time,” he said in a statement. “We appreciate that the county attorney agreed that the officers in this case had probable cause to present the charges they made.”
Police officers shot and killed Ms. Taylor, 26, an emergency medical technician, on March 13 after three officers used a no-hit order to enter her apartment with a battering ram during an investigation of drugs late at night.
Louisville police fired one of the officers involved in the shooting, Brett Hankison, saying he violated his policy on the use of deadly force by firing “wildly and blindly” 10 shots at Ms. Taylor’s apartment. Officers have not been charged, fueling daily protests in Louisville and in cities across the country.
Jacey Fortin and Allyson Waller contributed reporting.
