Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is attempting to prevent a grand juror from speaking publicly about the jury’s proceedings in the Breonna Taylor case. On Wednesday (Oct. 7), Cameron filed a motion asking the court to dismiss the juror, who sued to have the jury’s recordings and transcripts released and for the right to talk about their deliberations.
“As I’ve stated prior, I have no concerns with a grand juror sharing their thoughts or opinions about me and my office’s involvement in the matter involving the death of Ms. Breonna Taylor,” Cameron said in a statement after filing the motion. “However, I have concerns with a grand juror seeking to make anonymous and unlimited disclosures about the grand jury proceedings.”
“The grand jury process is secretive for a reason: to protect the safety and anonymity of all the grand jurors, witnesses and innocent persons involved in the proceedings,” Cameron added. “Allowing this disclosure would irreversibly alter Kentucky’s legal system by making it difficult for prosecutors and the public to have confidence in the secrecy of the grand jury process going forward.”
The new motion arrives less than a week after Cameron released 15 hours of recordings from the grand jury’s deliberations after a judge required him to do so. Notably, the recordings did not include anything about Cameron’s charging recommendations, as he said they didn’t count as evidence. He’s previously stated that he and his office did not recommend murder charges against officers Myles Cosgrove and Jonathan Mattingly.
Taylor’s family, however, believes Cameron left out significant information in his presentation to the grand jury, leading them to only indict ex-cop Brett Hankison. Furthermore, the unnamed juror who sued for the tapes to be released has accused the attorney general of “using the grand jurors as a shield to deflect accountability and responsibility.”
According to CBS News, the juror wants permission to share “details surrounding the actions outside of those recorded proceedings and anything that did not happen in the grand jury proceedings.” This would include “discussion of charges that were not presented to the grand jury, explanations of the law that were not provided to the grand jury, defenses or justifications that were not detailed during the proceedings, witnesses that did not testify, potential defendants that were not presented and/or individuals or officials who were not present for the proceedings.”