Daniel Cameron responds to Breonna Taylor’s family seeking to reopen case
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron responds to Breonna Taylor's family's attorney on 'Fox & Friends.'
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron responded Wednesday to a recent impeachment petition filed against him last week, affirming that he remains proud of the way his office handled the investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death.
Separately, a new lawsuit filed on behalf of Taylor’s family alleges that the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD) is withholding additional body camera footage from a separate raid at a different address the same night in March that Taylor was shot and killed at her apartment.
A petition seeking the impeachment of Cameron, a Republican and the state’s first Black attorney general, was filed Friday by three grand jurors who accuse him of deceiving the public regarding his handling of the investigation into Taylor's death. The allegations do not accuse him of any crimes, but impeachment is not considered a criminal proceeding.
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"I'm proud of the work that my team of special prosecutors did," Cameron told WDRB on Wednesday. "I'm confident in the work that they did and completely understand that this process has to unfold. And I'll allow that process to speak for itself."
He added: "Sometimes people aren't always going to agree with you 100 percent. And I understand that. And that is what's so special about the democratic process that we have here."
Cameron was the special prosecutor who investigated the actions of the Louisville police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Taylor during a warrant search last year. The investigation culminated in a grand jury ruling that did not charge any of the officers in the Black woman's death. The shooting sparked protests in Louisville alongside national protests over racial injustice and police misconduct.
Cameron's office did not immediately return a voicemail left by Fox News on Wednesday.
Also related to Taylor's case, this week Sam Aguiar, one of the attorneys representing Taylor’s family, filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court alleging that the Louisville Metro Police Department withheld at least 18 body camera videos from a police raid carried out at a different address across the city the same night Taylor was killed, WLKY reported.
Officials say no police body camera footage exists that captured the raid into Taylor's apartment.
Months before Cameron announced a decision in the investigation, Aguiar and other attorneys representing Taylor’s family filed a subpoena for the body-camera footage from the Elliott Avenue address, which was believed to be the home of Jamarcus Glover, Taylor's ex-boyfriend who was the target of the department's sweeping drug investigation.
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The police department declined to release the videos at the time, arguing that they could jeopardize the investigation and taint the jury pool. The videos from Elliot Avenue later came to light as a result of an open records request by Aguilar.
The Louisville Metro Police Department did not immediately return a Fox News request for comment Wednesday.
The petition against Cameron, signed by a handful of Kentuckians, revives allegations raised anonymously by the three grand jurors, as well as alleges a breach of public trust and failure to comply with his duties as the state's chief law enforcement official.
"The grand jurors did not choose this battle," Kevin Glogower, who signed the impeachment petition on the three jurors’ behalf, said in a statement Friday. "This battle chose them. These are randomly selected citizens who were compelled to sit on a grand jury and were terribly misused by the most powerful law enforcement official in Kentucky."
Cameron had said in a widely viewed news conference that the grand jury had agreed that the officers who shot Taylor were justified because they were fired at by Taylor’s boyfriend. Officers fired 32 rounds into the home, five of which struck Taylor.
The three grand jurors said they did not agree and wanted to explore criminal charges, but said they were denied because Cameron’s prosecutors believed none of those charges would stick.
Cameron, seen as a rising GOP star, is a close ally of U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
The petition against him is the latest seeking the ouster of prominent Kentucky officeholders. Another petition is seeking the ouster of Republican state Rep. Robert Goforth for an incident in which he allegedly tried to strangle a woman. Goforth, a former gubernatorial candidate, pleaded not guilty after his indictment on charges of strangulation and assault. The case is pending.
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Four Kentucky citizens also recently petitioned the state House of Representatives to impeach Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for executive actions he took in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the matter was assigned to a House committee for review.
Kentucky law requires impeachment petitions to be referred to a House committee but does not require any further action. Under the state's constitution, the House possesses the sole power of impeachment. An impeachment trial is held in the state Senate, with a conviction requiring the support of two-thirds of the senators present.
The petition against Cameron was submitted to an overwhelmingly Republican Kentucky House.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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