Federal Officials Charge Four Officers in Breonna Taylor Raid

Prosecutors said on Thursday that two detectives and a police sergeant had falsely claimed in an affidavit used to obtain the warrant that the former boyfriend had been receiving packages at Ms. Taylor’s apartment. In fact, according to the indictment, the officers had no evidence of such packages, but misrepresented their case to the judge who authorized the raid.

One of the officers charged, Joshua Jaynes, a former detective who was also fired over his role in the raid, sent a draft of the affidavit to Kelly Goodlett, another detective now facing charges, in which he included the false claim about the packages, the prosecutors said.

Ms. Goodlett knew that the claim was false, the prosecutors said, but did not object to it, and also added what they described as a “misleading” claim that the former boyfriend was using the address to Ms. Taylor’s apartment as his current address.

The third officer charged, Sgt. Kyle Meany, who led a department investigative unit, approved the affidavit despite knowing that it contained the false information, according to the indictment.

The indictment accuses two of the officers not only of including false information in the affidavit, but conspiring to lie about it afterward. Two months after Ms. Taylor’s death, prosecutors said, Mr. Jaynes and Ms. Goodlett met in Mr. Jaynes’s garage and decided to tell investigators, falsely, that a sergeant had informed them that packages were being sent to Ms. Taylor’s apartment.

Mr. Jaynes and Mr. Meany were each accused of violating Ms. Taylor’s right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Ms. Goodlett was accused of conspiring to falsify the affidavit, as well as conspiring to hinder the subsequent investigation into the raid. Mr. Jaynes was also charged with conspiring to hinder the investigation.