The jurors said they were never presented with the option to consider indicting officers on charges directly linked to Taylor's death.
Two members of the grand jury involved in the Breonna Taylor case are accusing Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron of falsely representing their position on potential indictments for the officers involved in Taylor's death.
The jurors, who asked to remain anonymous, told CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King in an exclusive interview that they were never presented with the option to consider indicting officers on charges directly linked to Taylor's death.
"It was a betrayal," Juror No. 2 said. "They didn't give us the charges up front… when they gave us all of that testimony, over 20-something hours, and then to say that these are the only charges that they're coming up with, it's like, 'Well, what did we just sit through?'"
Taylor, an emergency medical technician with no criminal record, was shot and killed in her Louisville, Kentucky home during a police raid in March. Officers used a no-knock warrant to enter the home, looking for Taylor's ex-boyfriend.
Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, told Gayle King in October that he fired one shot believing it to be a home invasion. While police claim they announced themselves at the door, Walker and several other witnesses said they did not, before firing a barrage of bullets into the apartment. Taylor was hit several times.
No officers were charged in Taylor's death, but one officer at the scene, Brett Hankison, was fired and charged with wanton endangerment for shooting at an apartment next door.
Juror No. 2 said there was an "uproar" among the grand jury when they were told by prosecutors that the wanton endangerment charge was the only one to consider after hours of testimony.
According to Juror No. 1, prosecutors said that "there were other possible charges" that were considered, but none they could "make stick."
"They never gave us the opportunity to deliberate on anything but the charges for Hankison. That was it," Juror No. 2 said. "There were several more charges that could have gone forward on all of those officers or at least the 3 shooters."
Asked what stands out to him the most, the jurors' lawyer Kevin Glogower said, "from a legal perspective, it looked like they weren't following the grand jurors and they only wanted the grand jurors to follow them, which is contrary to the actual rule."
"Normally," he said, "the grand jurors are presented with the law and the charges so that they can listen to the facts with an open mind and apply those facts to the law, almost as a road map."
In Breonna Taylor's case, Glogower said, "it was done in the complete reverse."
Juror No. 1 and No. 2 say what prompted them ultimately to speak out was the press conference held by the Kentucky attorney general. In it, Cameron said "While there are six possible homicide charges under Kentucky law these charges are not applicable to the facts before us because our investigation showed, and the grand jury agreed, that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified in their return of deadly fire."
While he did not give CBS News a new statement, Cameron told a local Kentucky TV station in September that if the grand jury "wanted to make an assessment about different charges, they could have done that."
The jurors claim they were never given the option to consider different charges, which left them feeling frustrated and disgusted.
Juror No. 1 said that press conference was the "first time" he heard any mention of "six possible murder charges."
"It was not presented to us," he said.
Juror No. 2 said he felt "this was all Cameron."
"This was up to him. We didn't get a choice in that at all, so I was livid," he said. "By the time I heard what he was saying, everything that came out of his mouth, I was saying, 'Liar.'… 'Cause we didn't agree to anything."
He said the grand jury had never even met Cameron.
While Glogower said Kentucky's attorney general "doesn't normally present cases to the grand jury," he said the "highest person in the office" would at least introduce themselves to them.
"If you watch the press conference, it seemed clear from the wording that Mr. Cameron was implying that he played a larger role in the actual presentation," Glogower said.
Asked if they believed there was enough evidence to present murder, attempted murder or manslaughter charges, Juror No. 1 said there was.
"I mean, just all of the evidence there — as we were listening to it, we were sure this was leading up to something like that," he said.
Among the evidence the grand jury heard from the night of the raid was a 911 call from Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. He said he fired a shot at officers, thinking they were intruders. Officers returned fire with 32 bullets.
Juror No. 2 said the "distress" in Walker's voice made it plausible he did not know it was the police who were at his door shooting.
"He didn't know who it was that was coming in, you know. He had no idea," he said. "Everything about what he said was believable. It made sense all the way through."
Both jurors agreed Walker was credible — and both said the police were not.
"There are too many inconsistencies in their story," Juror No. 1 said. "I understand that, you know, in a situation like that, you may not remember… but I didn't find their testimony credible."
He said his understanding of the night Taylor was killed amounted to the fact that it was a "mess" that lacked leadership and organization.
Juror No. 2 accused police of covering up their mistakes.
"From the evidence that I heard, this thing started out downhill to begin with… You don't need seven cops to go up to somebody's door and knock on it and say, 'You know, we're here to do an investigation,' at 1:00 in the morning," Juror No. 2 said. "It was one mistake right after the other one… They covered it up. That's what the evidence that I saw. And I felt like there should have been lots more charges on them."
This article was originally published on CBSNews.com on Oct. 28, 2020.
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