Louisville Metro Police Sergeant. Jonathan Mattingley, who was not convicted of the shooting death of Breno Taylor this week, will file a civil lawsuit against the individuals who allegedly called him a “murderer.”
Attorney Todd McMurtry told Fox News in a statement Friday that Mattingley sues people he accuses of “calling him a ‘murderer.’
Mattingley was one of several officers who issued a knock-on warrant at the home of 26-year-old Brona Taylor on March 13 during a boated drug investigation. State Attorney General Daniel Cameron said Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walt Mattingley was shot in the leg. Police entered the home because he thought he was being robbed or Taylor’s ex-boyfriend was coming inside.
Authorities fired at least 20 shots, shooting and killing Taylor, an emergency medical technician, six times. No drugs were found at the scene. Only former LMPD officer Brett Hank Kisan was charged in the case. Not in Taylor’s shooting death, but in a neighbor’s house where a family slept, he was charged with three counts of endangering her by shooting her gun.
BRENNA TAYLOR’S MOTHER: Grand jury verdict shows why I do ‘no faith in the legal system’
Makermurthy posted a 44-second video of Mattingley on Twitter on Thursday, when he was shot by Vaker Kar. The footage showed Mattingley was placed in the back of the vehicle before being taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries.
Warning: Graphic language
McMurtry tweeted, “They called him a ‘murderer’ when he defended himself.
He also tweeted on Wednesday that “anyone who calls these honorable men ‘murderers’ needs to withdraw immediately and apologize.”
McMurtry, referring to the lawsuit in early June, said after an email to the Courier-Journal that “accusing an innocent person of a crime is inherently defamatory.”
Brenna Taylor’s family demands Kentucky AG grand jury releases transcripts, lawyer says
Kent Wicker, a representative of Mattingley’s criminal defense attorney, declined to comment.
The meeting sent an email to 1,000 of his colleagues this week, as first reported by Vice News, saying he knew police had acted “legally, ethically and morally” on the night of the shooting.
Officers Miles Cosgrove and Mattingley are both still on the police force, but on leave. A federal investigation is underway.
McMurtry Describe themselves As an attorney, he is “committed to fighting for underdogs who are doomed, defamed and tortured by the left.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
He represents Nick Sandman, a former student at Queenington Catholic High School, in a lawsuit against media outlets for his coverage of a viral confrontation with a Native American elder last year. They settled with The Washington Post and CNN earlier this year for an undisclosed amount.
Sandum spoke at the Republican National Convention last month and signed on to work for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign.
The Associated Press contributes to this report.
