A federal judge in Kentucky has agreed to dismiss charges against two former Louisville police officers accused of falsifying the search warrant that led to Breonna Taylor’s death, closing another legal chapter in a case that galvanized a national reckoning over police accountability.

Judge Charles R. Simpson III of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky granted the dismissal Friday, siding with the former officers who sought to have the federal charges thrown out. The two officers had faced accusations of providing false information on the search warrant used to enter Taylor’s apartment on the night of March 13, 2020, when Louisville Metro Police shot and killed the 26-year-old emergency medical technician.

The ruling adds to a pattern of legal setbacks for prosecutors seeking accountability in the Taylor case. Six years after her death, not a single officer has been convicted of a criminal offense directly tied to the shooting.

Taylor was killed when officers executed a no-knock warrant at her Louisville apartment. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a shot believing intruders were breaking in. Officers returned fire, and Taylor was struck multiple times. No drugs were found at her home.

The case prompted protests across the country in the summer of 2020, overlapping with the broader uprising that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Taylor’s name became a rallying cry for activists demanding an end to no-knock warrants and greater oversight of police conduct.

Louisville Metro Government agreed in September 2020 to pay Taylor’s family $12 million and implement policing reforms. Kentucky also passed Breonna’s Law, banning no-knock warrants statewide. But civil settlements and legislative changes are not criminal accountability, and her family and advocates have long pushed for the latter.

At the federal level, the U.S. Department of Justice charged four former Louisville officers in 2022 with civil rights violations related to the case. Two officers faced charges specifically tied to the falsified warrant application. Those are the charges Judge Simpson has now agreed to dismiss.

Brett Hankison, one of the officers present during the raid, was acquitted in 2022 on state charges of wanton endangerment for firing into a neighboring apartment. Federal charges against him stemming from the raid were later resolved. Former Detective Joshua Jaynes, identified as having sought the flawed warrant, faced federal charges alongside former Detective Kyle Meany. The dismissal Friday applied to those remaining warrant-related charges.

The Taylor case exposed systemic failures in how Louisville police obtained and executed search warrants. An FBI investigation and subsequent DOJ review found the warrant lacked sufficient probable cause and that officers made material misrepresentations to obtain it. The apartment was targeted based partly on claims that Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, a drug suspect, had been receiving packages there. Investigators later concluded those claims could not be substantiated.

The DOJ published a sweeping report on Louisville Metro Police in 2023, documenting a pattern of unconstitutional stops, excessive force and discriminatory policing. That report formed the basis for a consent decree the city entered into with the federal government. But consent decrees address systemic reform, not individual criminal culpability.

For advocates who have spent six years pushing for justice for Taylor, Friday’s ruling is another gut punch. The dismissal does not exonerate the officers or render the underlying facts in dispute. It resolves a federal criminal proceeding on grounds that, as yet, have not been made fully public in reporting.

The case remains a touchstone in national debates about police reform, the reliability of warrant applications, and whether the criminal justice system can hold law enforcement accountable when things go catastrophically wrong. Those debates have not faded.

Taylor would have turned 33 this June. Her mother, Tamika Palmer, has continued to speak publicly about her daughter and to press for accountability from Louisville officials and federal prosecutors. What the family receives instead, with increasing frequency, is news of charges dropped, acquittals entered, and cases closed.

The courthouse doors, at least in the criminal courts, appear to have shut on the Taylor case.