The Kentucky Attorney General’s Office has teamed up with former Lousiville officer Brett Hankison to argue to keep investigative materials from being released to the public.
Hankison was the only officer who faced any charges over the incident on March 13, which resulted in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor.
The Louisville Courier-Journal requested discovery materials to be filed as part of the court’s public record, citing that the public has a right to know how the office handled the case.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the judicial system, in some sense, is on trial here,” an attorney representing the Courier-Journal, Michael Abate, argued in court per CNN. “The public has a right and need to see, not only the evidence in this case, but how the attorney general and the commonwealth have handled this case.”
Cameron has fought against transparency from the beginning, but his office says publishing discovery materials will greatly reduce Hankison’s chances of receiving a fair trial.
“There’s been a lot of information almost daily in the media. If the discovery is filed in the record and then becomes published, that will multiply and intensify the amount of information that is out in the public,” Assistant Attorney General Barbara Whaley argued.
Elizabeth Kuhn, a Cameron spokeswoman, said the attorney general’s office would not comment, issuing a previously released statement from Cameron.
“Indictments obtained in the absence of sufficient proof under the law do not stand up and are not fundamentally fair to anyone,” he said. “I remain confident in our presentation to the grand jury, and I stand by the team of lawyers and investigators who dedicated months of work to this case.”
