The US Department of Justice announced Tuesday that a former Louisville, Kentucky detective has pleaded guilty to two separate federal charges. Detective Kelly Goodlett admitted that she conspired to falsify an affidavit to obtain a warrant to search Breonna Taylor’s home without probable cause and that, after the search resulted in Taylor’s death, she also conspired to cover up the illegal warrant by lying to investigators.

According to her plea agreement, Goodlett acknowledged that she assisted another LMPD detective and their unit supervisor in efforts to obtain a warrant to search Taylor’s home despite knowing that they lacked any probable cause to do so. In order to establish probable cause for the affidavit, the group knowingly created information that was false, misleading, and stale.

Specifically, the officers falsified or misrepresented all the key information in the warrant affidavit in to create a false pretext for the warrant. Goodlett also admitted that the assertion that the target of the warrant currently lived at Taylor’s home was known to be stale at the time of the affidavit and was an intentional misrepresentation. She also acknowledged that the evidence justifying the request for a no-knock entry and nighttime raid was entirely fabricated.

Finally, Goodlett also admitted that she repeatedly provided false information to investigators in an attempt to mislead them. She further admitted that she conspired with another detective in a coordinated attempt to subvert the entire investigation.

Goodlett will be sentenced at an upcoming hearing but, according to the plea agreement, will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The DOJ has been investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department’s practices since April 2021.