Court upholds termination decision for former LMPD detective Myles Cosgrove

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A former Louisville Metro Police detective who has been fighting to get his job back following the death of Breonna Taylor during an attempted raid on her home has lost another appeal.

Myles Cosgrove was fired in Jan. 2021 for use of excessive force after firing 16 shots into Taylor’s apartment in March 2020. Police said Cosgrove failed to identify a target during the incident, which led to one of Cosgrove’s rounds hitting and killing Taylor during the raid.

LMPD’s Merit Board upheld the decision to fire Cosgrove in Dec. 2021.

On Friday, Judge Melissa Logan Bellows in Jefferson Circuit Court issued the order stating the decision by LMPD’s Merit Board was justified and that Cosgrove’s appeal was denied.

“Given the evidence presented in the record, the Court must find that the Police Merit Board had substantial evidence upon which to base their decision, were thus not arbitrary in their decision, and as such must be affirmed,” the court document reads.

The judge said the principles of target identification and isolation are not just part of police training but part of self-defense law, and that even normal citizens should be upheld by those standards.

According to court documents, Cosgrove argued “that he should be held to a less stringent standard than an ordinary Kentucky resident, despite having considerably more legal privileges.”

In November, the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council voted not to revoke Cosgrove’s state peace officer certification, which is required for him to be a police officer within the commonwealth.