Attorneys for Breonna Taylor’s family lash out at prosecutors for referring to her as a ‘co-defendant’

Attorneys for Breonna Taylor‘s family lashed out at prosecutors for referring to her as a “co-defendant” in a drug case during plea deal negotiations with Taylor’s ex-boyfriend.

Jamarcus Glover, Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, was the focus of a Louisville police narcotics investigation that eventually led plainclothes officers to execute a “no-knock” warrant on Taylor’s home March 13, when she was gunned down by police.

Glover was arrested elsewhere during a series of raids that day but released on bail.

He was arrested again last week after failing to pay bail on separate drug offenses in July, according to Jeff Cooke, a spokesman for the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.

Taylor’s family and their attorney have maintained the 26-year-old Black woman was not involved in her ex-boyfriend’s alleged drug deals.

A document from plea deal negotiations

The allegation that prosecutors offered Glover concessions if he implicated Taylor in the drug case stem from a photo of part of a document that was shared with Glover’s attorneys during plea deal negotiations with the office of Commonwealth’s Attorney Thomas Wine. It was later obtained by Sam Aguiar, an attorney for the Taylor family.

“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,” Aguiar wrote in a Facebook post.

“Breonna Taylor is not a ‘co-defendant’ in a criminal case. She’s dead,” Aguiar wrote.

In a statement, Wine characterized the document where Taylor’s name appeared as “a draft that was part of pre-indictment plea negotiations with Mr. Glover,” but noted that Taylor was “never a Co-Defendant” in the case against Glover.

“Those drafts were never part of the court record and are not court documents,” Wine added, and stated that “a case including Breonna Taylor as a Co-Defendant was never presented to the Grand Jury.”

“When I was advised of the discussions, out of respect for Ms. Taylor, I directed that Ms. Breonna Taylor’s name be removed,” Wine said.

Plea deal offer taken off the table

Jeff Cooke, a spokesman for Wine’s office, said Taylor’s name appearing in a draft of the document was part of “negotiations between one of our prosecutors and Mr. Glover’s defense attorney.”

“There was nothing that was agreed to, no plea was entered, no plea has been entered,” Cooke said.

“And again, there was even a revised offer that did not include her,” Cooke said. “The only reason this is out in the public is because Ms. Taylor’s attorney has decided to do so and trying to change the narrative or create a new narrative regarding his client.”

Aguiar only posted part of one page of the document on Facebook. He has not responded to requests from CNN for a full copy of the document.

When asked for the document that listed Taylor as a co-defendant, officials only provided the final version which was presented to Glover, which did not list Taylor as a co-defendant or implicate her in Glover’s alleged crimes.

The deal, Wine says, was emailed to Mr. Glover’s attorney on July 21 and the offer was taken off the table after Glover failed to surrender to the court.

Attorney: Taylor was listed as a member of a crime syndicate in plea deal months after her death

Taylor, alongside Glover, is listed as a member of an “organized crime syndicate,” in the proposed plea agreement, in a statement of facts of the case. Aguiar wrote on Facebook that the date of the plea deal, July 13, was four months after Taylor was shot in her apartment.

Scott Barton, an attorney for Glover, did not return a request for comment from CNN. He told WDRB that he received several plea offers from prosecutors and that one contained Taylor’s name. The most recent offer, he told WDRB, did not.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who along with Aguiar and Lonita Baker, is representing Taylor’s family, issued a statement saying, “we are outraged that prosecutors would attempt to justify Breonna Taylor’s death by leaning on Jamarcus Glover to falsely state — after her death — that she was part of an organized crime syndicate. This is why the Black community has no trust in America’s justice system.”

Asked about the documents and accusations that police and prosecutors are trying to cast Breonna Taylor as being involved in drug activity, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, said “Any attempt to link her is just not relevant to the investigation that’s taking place right now. So, it’s not helpful.”

Taylor was with her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, in the early hours of March 13. When they heard noise, they both got up and walked to the door, where Walker fired a warning shot from his gun, mistaking police for intruders. Walker’s attorney has said Walker legally owned the gun.

Walker told investigators he heard banging at the door and assumed it was Glover.

Police returned fire, killing Taylor. Like the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, her death fueled ongoing nationwide conversations over racial injustice and police brutality.