As we continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, new information regarding the raid on her home and the subsequent investigation continues to surface. It was recently revealed that the drug suspect officers were looking for when they raided Taylorโs home and fatally shot her, was offered a plea deal last month to name Breonna as a drug trafficker.
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From WDRB News:
Jamarcus Glover, the focus of a series of Louisville police raids, including one in which officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor, was offered a plea bargain last month if he would admit that Taylor was a member of his โorganized crime syndicate,โ records show.
As part of the July 13 offer, Glover was to acknowledge that over a period of time through April 22 he and several โco-defendants,โ including Taylor, engaged in organized crime by trafficking large amounts of drugs โinto the Louisville community.โ
Glover, a convicted felon with a history of drug trafficking, turned down the plea offer from the Jefferson Commonwealthโs Attorneyโs office. It would have resulted in a possible 10-year prison sentence for charges of criminal syndication, drug trafficking and gun charges.
If he had taken the plea, Glover could possibly had been released on probation instead of serving prison time. That decision would have been up to the sentencing judge.
The crime syndicate organization, according to the plea offer obtained by WDRB News, sold drugs mainly from abandoned or vacant houses on Elliott Avenue in the Russell neighborhood.
Taylor lived about 10 miles away in an apartment on Springfield Drive.
Itโs worth mentioning that Taylorโs storyโwhich happened in Marchโtook months to receive much media attention. Even with Taylorโs family urging activists and mainstream media to get involved in bringing attention to the 26-year-oldโs case, it took the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter explosion to finally get people chanting โjustice for Breonna.โ
Iโm not saying itโs anything more than a coincidence that shortly after Breonnaโs story began receiving worldwide attention, legal officials tried to get Glover to rename her Avon Barksdale...Iโm just saying.
Sam Aguiar, an attorney who represents Taylorโs family in a wrongful death lawsuit, told WDRB that the plea offer shows โthe lengths to which those within the police department and Commonwealthโs Attorney went to after Breonna Taylorโs killing to try and paint a picture of her which was vastly different than the woman she truly was.
โThe fact that they would try to even represent that she was a co-defendant in a criminal case more than a month after she died is absolutely disgusting,โ Aguiar continued.
Ted Shouse, a Louisville attorney who worked for the Kentucky Innocence Project, accuses the Jefferson Commonwealthโs Attorneyโs office of trying to destroy Taylor โbecause she is destroying them. And they want Jamarcus Glover to do it for them because their efforts have failed. So they offer him a bribe, basically. All you have to do is smear her.โ
But Glover wasnโt willing to play their game and has repeatedly insisted that Breonna Taylor had nothing to do with his alleged dealings.
Glover has said repeatedly in recorded jail phone calls and an interview with The Courier-Journal, that Taylor, a former girlfriend, was not involved in any drug operation and questioned why police would raid her home.
In one recorded jail call, [Glover] said officers โdidnโt have no business looking for me at no Bre house.
โAt the end of the day, I know she didnโt ... I know she didnโt to deserve none of this sh**, though,โ he said according to the call, which is part of the evidence in his criminal case.
This isnโt the first time new information connected to Breonnaโs case has raised eyebrows. In July, The Root reported on newly released audio from interviews conducted during the investigation into Taylorโs death that showed drastic differences between how one of the officers involved in the shooting was questioned and how Kenneth WalkerโTaylorโs boyfriend who was arrested at the sceneโwas handled in questioning. Basically, the cop got handled with kid gloves while Walker got treated like the main suspect in the first half of a Law & Order episode before the plot twist.
But, again, these are probably all just huge coincidences.
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