City buys home rented by Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend for $1 as new allegations arise

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - The attorneys representing Breonna Taylor’s family now claim a development project was the reason police focused on her ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover. Part of the project includes Elliott Avenue, where Glover rented a house, the lawsuit states, and where the City of Louisville has recently acquired several properties.

A warranty deed obtained by WAVE 3 News Troubleshooters, dated June 5th, 2020, shows the city purchased Glover’s rented home from Law-Mar Inc. for $1. The estimated home value was more than $17,000.

A map, which shows the City of Louisville logo and the title of the Elliott Avenue Project, shows several of the properties surrounding Glover’s home were labeled as “city controlled” and have already been purchased or demolished. The map is dated November 2019.

Glover’s home is listed as “pending metro acquisition” on the map, and it sits in the middle of other city-controlled or city-acquired properties scheduled for demolition.

Reverend Paul Stillwell runs the non-profit Keeping It Real Inc. which he says works with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer to come up with ideas for the neighborhood. He told WAVE 3 News he thought the Elliott Avenue Project was only about bringing down the 9th Street divide and empowering people in the West End.

“We are not with the ejecting people out of here or gentrification. That’s the farthest from the truth,” Stillwell said. “We want to keep our people in our own neighborhoods because that’s where they want to be. That’s the discussions that we’ve had with them.”

Stillwell said there was no immediate push to bring in a developer. He said he went to the University of Kentucky’s architecture students to come up with rendering for Elliott Avenue. Those rendering were featured in the amended lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges Fischer wanted to leave behind a legacy project in the Russell neighborhood, which includes Elliott Avenue. But first, the city had to focus on cleaning up the area. It also claims police officers were pressured and misguided to clean up Elliott Avenue from drugs to pave the way for a new development project.

The mayor’s office has called the claims “outrageous” and that the project has been in the works for years.

The lawsuit also names an LMPD squad called Place Based Investigations as being part of the plans for the developments. They’re the same team noted on the warrants served on Taylor’s boyfriend.

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