Cousins, held for years on murder charges, claim police framed them to protect informant

Jonathan Taylor spent five years in jail awaiting trial — and a possible death sentence — on a murder charge before it was dropped.

His cousin and co-defendant, Amanda Hoskins, was torn from her three children for three years as she was shifted from jail to jail before the dismissal of the same charges against her.

Now they are fighting back.

In a 40-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in London, Kentucky, their lawyers describe in frightening detail how officers from three departments, including a half-dozen detectives from the state police, allegedly conspired to manufacture evidence to frame them — all to protect an informant they knew was the likely killer.

“Ms. Hoskins and Mr. Taylor should never have been arrested in the first place,” their lawyers, Elliot Slosar and Andy Thayer, both of Chicago, said in a news release. “In the meantime, the police destroyed their lives and left the real perpetrators of these crimes at large in the community.”

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/04/05/cousins-held-years-murder-charges-claim-police-framed-them-protect-informant/100064972/