- The trial of Brett Hankison, the officer charged in
Breonna Taylor raid, was moved to 2022. - Hankinson is accused of firing a gun wantonly into a neighbor's apartment, not for killing her.
- A judge moved the trial five months, citing COVID-19 restrictions.
The trial of Brett Hankison, the former Louisville
Ex-Det. Brett Hankison - the only former officer who was indicted in Taylor's case - pleaded not guilty to three charges of wanton endangerment for shooting in the neighbor's apartment, not for killing her.
Hankison was initially scheduled to be tried on August 31, but Judge Ann Bailey Smith on Friday moved the trial to February 1, 2022, the Courier-Journal reported. She cited the Kentucky Supreme Court directive, which gives priority trials to defendants being held in jail during the pandemic.
Trials are delayed across Louisville and around the US as courts struggle to balance social distancing mandates and defendants' rights to a speedy trial.
Smith said on Friday that there is only one room in the Jefferson County Courthouse that can accommodate a large number of people, and that there are two murder trials already scheduled for the week of Aug. 31.
By pushing the case to February, Smith hopes that COVID-19 restrictions, like mask requirements, could lessen, the local paper reported.
"You want to not only hear what people have to say, but you want to see their expressions on their faces," Smith said, according to the Courier Journal. "That's going to be very difficult when they're masked up."
Taylor was shot eight times in her apartment during a March 13 botched drug raid after police entered her home on a no-knock warrant. Hankison's charges say that he "wantonly shot a gun" into the apartment of Taylor's neighbor.
None of the three officers involved, including Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove, were charged in her death. Hankison was fired from the Louisville Metro Police Department at the end of June.
Hankison's defense requested that the trial be moved out of the county, but Smith refused. She said she's moved the case only if she found she was unable to seat a fair jury, according to the Courier-Journal.
His next court hearing is scheduled for July 16, according to court records seen by Insider.