Yes. I’d like to know how many have been conducted under Acevedo’s watch. Then I want the whole process permanently ended in Houston and Acevedo needs to be gone. That is the only acceptable solution in my view. His promise and review is not good enough and neither is his judgement.TrueTexan wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:03 am At the least, the Texas Rangers need to be brought in to investigate the whole situation with the No Knock Raids in Houston. That will be the only way the citizens will be able to say they have been given the true facts.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
52Wait...I thought this was about the dangerous First and Second Amendments? You mean it's really about the abuse of power undertaken in the government's war against her own people?
Did not see that coming.
Did not see that coming.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
53Houston mayoral candidate Tony Buzbee is calling for the resignation of Police Chief Art Acevedo. In a letter sent to our TV partner KPRC Channel-2, the high-profile River Oaks attorney said, "This mayor hired the chief, he now needs to ask him to resign."
https://ktrh.iheart.com/content/2019-02 ... signation/“In the Marines when there is a colossal screwup, accountability starts at the top. This mayor hired the chief, he now needs to ask him to resign.
"The controversy stems from a botched shootout that left a couple in their late 50s, married more than two decades, and their dog, dead. An internal investigation has already revealed that the narcotic case agent, who obtained the warrant for the 'no-knock' entry, lied about the activity underlying the warrant, and at least one other officer attempted to cover up that lie. "It is also now known that this narcotic case agent, Gerald Goines, was already facing accusations of fabrication, even before the botched operation. According to the Houston Chronicle: 'Goines is currently accused of fabricating a drug deal, then lying about it in court to win a conviction against a man who has long maintained his innocence.'
“For a moment, put aside the chief’s duty to the citizens of Houston to protect them and to have systems in place to ferret out those rare bad cops; consider the morale of the 99 percent of Houston police officers who are out on the streets honestly doing the right thing, every day. They work hard, put their lives on the line, and face constant scrutiny by the public. They put their trust in the police chief to do his job and protect their reputation as a police force. He failed them, and all of us.
“The mayor needs to make sure this city stands behind its police force, but at the same time will deal harshly with a bad cop who lies to obtain a warrant, resulting in the death of two citizens and the shooting of other police. This mayor needs to seek the chief’s resignation, now. There are a lot of good police he can choose from to fill the position, because hiring from within is always better-in my view. I’ll also say I am confident that the rank and file police officers are just as disgusted by what happened as the citizens of Houston are. I’m also confident that the police will work, or are likely already working with outside authorities to ensure a thorough investigation is done not only in this case, but in all cases in which any bad cops were involved.”
I endorse a full and thorough investigation into this matter to determine what did and did not take place, and I stress that this be completed as soon as possible. I will refrain from commenting about it until I have all facts before me.”
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
54Or just fire him...
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
55Local TV news DFW report Houston will now forbid any no knock warrants.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
56The local reports I read this morning said essentially that all no knock warrants will go through Acevedo, not that there would be none.TrueTexan wrote: Tue Feb 19, 2019 2:25 pm Local TV news DFW report Houston will now forbid any no knock warrants.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
57One TV station got a hold of Goines personnel record.
The Houston police officer at the center of the deadly drug raid last month was praised for his use of confidential informants and productivity, according to city personnel records obtained by Eyewitness News.
https://abc13.com/what-personnel-files- ... 66a09e2b44http://civiliansdown.com/wp-content/upl ... tings.htmln a review by Eyewitness News of his City of Houston personnel records, Goines was often praised and his performance was rated highly. Since becoming a narcotics officer in 1993, Goines had 50 reviews. For four years straight between 2007 and 2011, his supervisor wrote he "utilizes confidential informants to a positive end." In the botched drug raid, investigators believe there was never a confidential informant who bought drugs at the Harding house, as Goines swore in a search warrant.
In Goines' 288-page file, there are more than 30 commendations for professionalism and good work over his 34 years with HPD. There are also six sustained complaints. Five led to written reprimands, including one for which he did not tag crack cocaine as evidence until a month later and only when he was asked about it. For the sixth, he got a one-day suspension for attacking a man his sister said sexually assaulted her. The police chief at the time wrote Goines "didn't use sound judgement."
What's missing in the pages is any mention of past shootings or prior problematic drug raids, some of which have been subjects of lawsuits. According to lawyers familiar with civil service complaints, the absence means the complaints were not sustained and HPD cleared Goines of wrongdoing. Goines' last review in August called him a "mentor to new narcotics investigators" while also saying he needed to "increase his productivity levels."
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
58https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texa ... 630749.phpThe FBI has launched an independent civil rights investigation into the conduct of officers involved in the botched no-knock drug raid that left two people dead and five officers wounded, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Wednesday at a City Hall press conference. The probe is the latest aftershock after last month's deadly drug raid, which left two people dead, thrown the Houston Police Department into turmoil, and sent city and county leaders scrambling to contain a burgeoning scandal.At the news conference, Acevedo said HPD's criminal investigation into the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas last month would continue, even as he outlined new policies that he said would avoid future fatalities.
"We as a police department have uncovered some malfeasance, we've taken it seriously, and we're not just looking at what's front of us, not just what's at the end of our nose," Acevedo said. "We have cast a wide net to make sure we identify any problems, most importantly procedures and methods so we can avoids things like this in the future." Standing by the chief's side, Mayor Sylvester Turner touted his confidence in Acevedo - who he described as a "change agent" - and emphasized the value of the ongoing probe. "What is important is for there to be a full, complete, thorough, and credible investigation," he said. "We want to hold people accountable if there's wrongdoing."
The Independent Police Oversight Board will be conducting its own review into the matter, officials said. "It's important for people to know that this is not a rubber stamp," the chief added. At the same time, Acevedo announced the formal adoption of a new policy significantly curtailing the use of no-knock raids, a move he previewed earlier in the week at a town hall meeting. Moving forward, only a handful of top officials in the department will be able to greenlight the risky no-knock warrant requests. “No-knock warrants are going to go away like leaded gasoline in this city,” Acevedo said at the town hall Monday, where he also said the department would be equipping undercover teams with body cameras during raids. Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi said the union backed the policy shift.
“We would be supportive of anything that’s going to make our officers’ job safer,” he said, “while not dealing in absolutes.” The scrutiny comes after a disastrous raid on Jan. 28, when an undercover narcotics squad burst into a home in southeast Houston hoping to arrest a man they said was dealing heroin. Instead, a shootout ensued, killing Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, and wounding four officers. Investigators never found any heroin at the location, just 18 grams of marijuana and a gram of cocaine. Friends and family of the couple killed disputed allegations they had any involvement in dealing drugs, and no evidence of a drug-dealing operation was found during the search of the home.
In the aftermath of the shootout, an internal Houston police investigation discovered that Gerald Goines, the lead officer during the investigation, had allegedly falsified information in the search warrant used to justify the raid.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 632388.phpThe Harris County District Attorney's Office launched a massive review of more than 1,400 criminal cases handled by Houston Police Officer Gerald Goines, the narcotics agent accused of lying on an affidavit used to justify a no-knock raid that left two civilians dead. The exhaustive inquiry came as the FBI announced a rare independent civil rights investigation into officers' handling of the search warrant at the center of the controversial case and as Police Chief Art Acevedo halted use of no-knock warrants without special review by his office. The developments are the latest aftershocks from the Jan. 28 drug raid in Pecan Park, which sparked a shoot-out that left two people dead, threw the Houston Police Department into turmoil and sent city and county leaders scrambling to contain the burgeoning scandal.
"We want to hold people accountable if there's wrongdoing," Mayor Sylvester Turner said Wednesday. "What is important is for there to be a full, complete, thorough, and credible investigation." The Pecan Park bust — and the case agent's actions — drew close scrutiny after the raid failed to deliver the expected heroin and investigators realized they couldn't find the confidential informant reportedly behind the undercover drug buy. The District Attorney's Office will review cases - including 27 that are active - stretching over Goines' 34-year history with the department. Even before the current investigation, the veteran undercover officer had a troubling history of lawsuits, shootings, disciplinary complaints and allegations of falsified evidence.
"Our duty is to see that justice is done in every case," District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "Although the criminal investigation of Officer Goines is ongoing, we have an immediate ethical obligation to notify defendants and their lawyers in Goines' other cases to give them an opportunity to independently review any potential defenses." Defense attorneys lauded the district attorney's decisive actions, though some voiced suspicions that one allegedly falsified warrant might be the tip of an iceberg."It's not his first rodeo," said Doug Murphy, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "It's a systemic problem. This is not new. It's new to the public, but it's not new to the criminal justice system." On Jan. 28, a Houston narcotics squad burst into a home in southeast Houston hoping to arrest a man they said was dealing heroin. Instead, a shootout ensued, in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58, died. Five officers were injured. Investigators found just 18 grams of marijuana, a gram of cocaine, and several firearms. In the aftermath, friends and family of the slain couple disputed allegations they had ever dealt drugs. Goines remains hospitalized after being shot in the neck during the drug raid.
The criminal cases now under review include one indecency with a child case, a weapons charge and a slew of drug charges ranging from minor possession to drug-dealing arrests. At least five of the defendants are still in jail. In one case — that of Jarrad Alexander — attorneys have raised concerns for months about Goines' handling of the matter. The 40-year-old, who has a long history of drug convictions, was arrested in 2017 on a cocaine charge. That May, narcotics officers forced their way into a home on Tuam and handcuffed everyone there. In a search, police found drugs and a gun. As with the Tuttle case, the search warrant was based on an affidavit written by Goines. And, as with Tuttle, questions arose about the warrant and the confidential informant used to justify it.
Last year, defense attorney Brock White filed a motion to toss out the evidence collected from the search, arguing that Goines had based the affidavit on a vague claim from an informant who said Alexander sold marijuana. There was "no corroborative investigation" of the tip, he alleged, and no indication where the tipster got the information. Initially, Alexander pleaded guilty. But after some legal wrangling over the plea deal, the court granted him a motion for a new trial. He's out on bond while his case is pending. The attorney now handling the case, Norm Silverman, was pleased to hear of the review but hoped it would lead to more scrutiny. "I'm concerned generally that the present interpretation of the laws governing supervision of the use of informants do not provide for verifiable transparency," he said. "We should never have to take the officer's word for anything."
Goines and another squad member — Steven Bryant — have been relieved of duty, but so far only Goines' cases are up for review. Amid community calls for an independent investigation, the FBI announced it would probe the circumstances leading to the execution of the warrant. Federal authorities will not, however, be taking over the criminal review into allegations of police misconduct, officials said.
"The FBI is an independent investigative entity whose sole purpose is to find details of an incident and prepare a fair collection of the facts so prosecutors can decide whether federal criminal charges are warranted," Special Agent-in-Charge Perrye K. Turner said in a statement.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
59Happy to see the FBI involved with the investigation. Sounds like Goines, if found guilty of the crimes he may have committed, should get some hard jail time and not just a slap on the wrist. Also the same for any other LEO involved with this.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
60Yes, another set of eyes going over the evidence is good. It appears to be more than Goines, that there is a culture that has allowed sloppy warrants, running confidential informants without supervision and poor annual evaluations. All drug arrests made by the HPD Narcotics Division could be tainted. Making Goines the fall guy doen't tell the whole story.TrueTexan wrote: Thu Feb 21, 2019 10:43 am Happy to see the FBI involved with the investigation. Sounds like Goines, if found guilty of the crimes he may have committed, should get some hard jail time and not just a slap on the wrist. Also the same for any other LEO involved with this.
Looks like the DA has an additional agenda.
https://www.lmtonline.com/news/houston- ... gn=hptexasHarris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is planning to head back to county leaders with another request for more prosecutors in light of the massive case review sparked by fallout from last month's botched Houston police drug raid.
The renewed push for additional positions comes just after a failed bid to get funding for 102 new prosecutors, a hefty $21 million budget request slapped down by the Harris County Commissioners Court earlier this month. At the time, Ogg argued that her office's overwhelming caseloads were likely among the highest in the country, and that the understaffing at all levels could prevent prosecutors from evaluating cases eligible for diversion.
But now, her new push to expand hinges on the need to review the more than 1,400 cases handled by Officer Gerald Goines, the case agent suspected of giving false information to justify the no-knock raid that left two civilians dead, officials said. In some of the cases, the 34-year officer was a witness, while in others he signed the affidavits underlying warrants, Ogg said Thursday. Of those up for review, 27 are active and at least five involve defendants currently in jail. "These are individual cases; justice has to be meted out in every one. It takes time, we need some more investigators," Ogg said. "We can get there with the understaffing that we have, it's just going to take longer."
It's not clear how many new positions Ogg would ask for, but she stressed that the case reviews will happen regardless. "This review is not contingent on funding, we're going to do it," she said. "It'll just take a lot longer with the few people that we've got assigned to our Conviction Integrity Division." Because the jobs would go to "trusted, trained" prosecutors, Ogg said, the idea would be to promote from within and hire new positions at a lower level. The review of the 27 active cases can be handled by current staff. "Most people in Harris County want these cases resolved now," she said. "I know that the public trust depends on it."
But it's not clear how the new request will be received; when Ogg went public with her last push for new positions, it sparked widespread pushback from defense lawyers, activists and reformers and put her at odds with progressives. "Adding prosecutors is the strategy that got us here in the first place, with this mentality that the only thing we can spend money on is police and prosecutors," Jay Jenkins, project attorney with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, told the Houston Chronicle at the time. This time around, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association did not offer comment, and the county's Chief Public Defender Alex Bunin said it wasn't clear how necessary the renewed request may or may not be.
"I don't have enough information to know what is the appropriate amount of prosecutors," he said, "but I certainly understand that if they've taken on a lot of unexpected work they may need the help." The planned funding request - announced Thursday following a press conference on an unrelated matter - comes amid a flurry of developments following the controversial raid at 7815 Harding Street. On Wednesday, officials announced that the FBI had launched a civil rights investigation relating to the matter, and earlier in the week Chief Art Acevedo said that Houston police would sharply curtail their use of no-knock warrants. The deadly gun battle that started it all broke out on Jan. 28, when an undercover narcotics squad burst into the Pecan Park home looking for heroin. Instead, they ended up in a shoot-out that left dead Dennis Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas. Five officers - including Goines - were hurt in the exchange. The bust only netted 18 grams of pot and about a gram of cocaine.
Afterward, an internal investigation raised concerns when police couldn't find the informant Goines said he used in an undercover heroin buy before the raid. The revelation sparked discussion about the possibility of criminal charges against the veteran officer, who has a history of complaints, lawsuits and other allegations.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
61#1 Rule for any up and coming politician: Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent." -Gandhi
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
62+1Bisbee wrote: Fri Feb 22, 2019 3:05 am #1 Rule for any up and coming politician: Never let a good tragedy go to waste.
Under Texas law, lying in a search warrant affidavit is aggravated perjury, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison. Under federal law, willfully depriving someone of his constitutional rights "under color of any law" is punishable by a prison term up to life or by execution "if death results."
Our duty is to see that justice is done in every case," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a press release yesterday. "Although the criminal investigation of Officer Goines is ongoing, we have an immediate ethical obligation to notify defendants and their lawyers in Goines' other cases to give them an opportunity to independently review any potential defenses." The defendants in 27 pending cases were notified yesterday, while "notification in older cases will be ongoing."
https://reason.com/blog/2019/02/21/frau ... nt-promptsBy noting that judges cannot independently verify controlled buys described by narcotics officers, I did not mean to imply that there were no grounds for Houston Municipal Court Judge Gordon Marcum, who approved the warrant in this case, to be skeptical of Goines' affidavit. Tuttle and Nicholas had lived at 7815 Harding Street for more than three decades; they were well-known in the neighborhood and publicly listed as residents. Yet in his affidavit, Goines refers to Tuttle as "a white male, whose name is unknown." That should have been a red flag indicating that Goines' investigation, which supposedly "had been going on for approximately two (2) weeks," was less than thorough. Goines also said he "advised" the C.I. that "narcotics were being sold and stored" at the house, but he cited no evidence of that, notwithstanding his two-week investigation. Goines claimed another narcotics officer, Steven Bryant, recognized the brown powder as heroin, a detail that Bryant has since contradicted. One wonders what Bryant would have said if Marcum had asked him to verify Goines' account.
FBI Press Release
https://twitter.com/FBIHouston/status/1 ... 7578719233
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
63How to make friends and influence people - Gamaldi sounds just like the new Exec Dir of the Mass Police Assn. He represents all the cops in HPD, but it does make me want to dissolve HFD and start from scratch since these are the people who enforce our laws.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
64A Houston narcotics officer under an internal police investigation following a botched January drug raid is retiring, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
Steven O. Bryant put in his paperwork this week while under investigation following the shooting deaths of two residents in an unannounced raid of a Pecan Park residence in south Houston on Jan. 28. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing more than 800 criminal cases brought by Bryant during his 23-year career. Sources said his last day is Friday.
wo other narcotics officers, including a longtime partner of Goines, have quietly retired from the department in recent weeks, including one who is under investigation for an unrelated matter, according to police documents and sources. Each officer had more than 20 years experience with the department.
In a search warrant for Bryant's phone data, an investigator with HPD's Special Investigations Unit wrote that Bryant told investigators he had retrieved two bags of heroin from the center console of Goines' police car at the instruction of another officer. That, however, was not consistent with the affidavit used to obtain the warrant for the Jan. 28 raid, in which Goines wrote that Bryant identified heroin brought out of the house. Though he took the two bags of drugs for testing to determine that they were heroin, Bryant eventually told investigators he had never seen the narcotics in question before retrieving them from the car.
Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed Bryant put in his retirement paperwork this week. An ongoing investigation would not affect his compensation benefits.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texa ... 671579.phpBryant’s retirement is the latest fallout from the deadly raid, and comes as Acevedo has launched a wide-ranging probe into the division and its operations following the raid. The FBI has launched a rare civil rights investigation into the operation.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has announced it is investigating 2,200 of the former criminal cases of Goines and Bryant. Acevedo has dramatically curtailed no-knock raids, and said he will equip raid teams with body cameras to record the operations. At the time of the raid, none of the members of the raid team was wearing cameras.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
65What a Charlie Foxtrot.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
66https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/h ... 706333.phpWeeks after vowing to cut down drastically on the use of no-knock raids, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Thursday drilled down into some of the specifics of his new department policy, which requires more oversight and forbids narcotics officers from carrying out the high-risk busts. Instead, effective last month, SWAT teams will execute all unannounced raids, but only after getting approval from top-ranking Houston police officials and a signature from a district court judge. “You don’t want to eliminate them completely,” Acevedo told a Houston City Council committee Thursday afternoon. “There are instances where the no-knock warrant tactic is probably the safest.”
The newly announced policy marks a sharp shift from past practices, when narcotics officers could routinely go to municipal court judges and county magistrates to get approval for drug raids - then carry them out without the back-up of experienced SWAT teams. The changes come in response to a Jan. 28 raid that turned into a shoot-out, leaving a Pecan Park couple dead and five narcotics officers injured. The botched bust has since morphed into a scandal officials are still struggling to contain amid ongoing questions about the justification for the raid. The new policy could address some of those concerns, though it won’t eliminate the use of no-knock warrants altogether - despite Acevedo’s claim last month that the risky raids would “go away liked leaded gasoline in this city.”
In the case of Harding Street, it was a municipal court judge who greenlit the controversial warrant, which authorities later realized may have contained false claims about an informant that apparently didn’t exist. Moving forward, police will only be permitted to go to district court judges for warrant approval, a move Acevedo said would alleviate any appearance of impropriety. “One of the complaints (was) that, ‘Well, they’re agents of the actual city,’” he told council members. And, though it was a narcotics squad that led the raid, drug police will only be permitted to serve knock-and-announce warrant in the future, and only with a lieutenant present at the scene. All no-knocks will go to SWAT teams, and will require approval from one of the department’s top lawmen.
Also, Houston police will start using ballistic shields and body cameras during forced entries. And - unlike at Harding Street - one buy will no longer be enough to justify a raid. “We know that they’re dangerous for everybody,” Acevedo said. Police initially burst in the Harding Street home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas searching for a pair of heroin dealers. But the deadly raid netted few drugs and sparked angry outcry from the couple’s friends and family who maintained they weren’t selling narcotics.
In the weeks following the raid, Acevedo said Officer Gerald Goines - the veteran case agent who requested the search warrant - will likely face criminal charges for allegedly lying about using a confidential informant to conduct an undercover buy. The department subsequently relieved Goines of duty, along with his since-retired partner, Officer Steven Bryant. Meanwhile, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced it was reviewing more than 2,200 of Goines’ and Bryant’s old cases, and the FBI launched a civil rights investigation into the circumstances behind the raid. Those probes - along with a pair of Houston police investigations - are still ongoing.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
67https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ex ... d-n1006196A former Houston police officer was charged with two counts of murder for allegedly lying to justify warrants for a January drug raid that killed two people and wounded five officers, prosecutors said Friday. Former narcotics officer Gerald Goines allegedly fabricated information in order to obtain the search warrants on the belief that suspects in a home were dealing black-tar heroin. The raid resulted in a shootout that killed the house's two occupants, Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, and their dog.
Goines was charged with two counts of murder, while his former partner Steven Bryant was charged with tampering with a government record, Harris County prosecutors said. "Under Texas law, if, during the commission of one felony, in this case tampering of a government record, a person commits an act clearly dangerous to human life ... that causes the death of another, in his case two deaths, it's first degree murder," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told reporters. "We call that felony murder. Today, we charged Gerald Goines with two counts of felony murder." Both men turned themselves in Friday afternoon, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported. Prosecutors will ask for $250,000 bail for Goines and $100,000 for Bryant, Ogg said.
Police documents say the warrant for the Harding Street home was justified by claims that a confidential informant bought heroin there and saw a weapon. Investigators trying to find that informant were given two names by Goines, who was one of the five officers wounded in the raid. Both informants denied working on that case or buying drugs at that address. Goines later admitted there was no confidential informant and he was the one who purchased the drugs, according to prosecutors. "The interview was taped," Ogg said. "He answered in writing." Bryant was accused of making false claims after the raids to help cover for Goines, prosecutors said. Both officers later retired. "The eyes of this community and the nation are on this case," Ogg said. "It is critical to the public trust that we reveal the true facts about what, how and why two civilians were killed in their own home by members of the Houston Police Narcotics Squad 15."
Family and friends of Tuttle and Nicholas have always maintained the two never sold drugs. Small amounts of marijuana and cocaine were found in the house but no heroin. Attorneys for the Nicholas family in a statement called the indictments "important developments, but they should be only the beginning of the pursuit of justice in the police killings of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle."
The attorneys said they are still seeking sworn depositions of two other police officials and other police personnel involved in the management of HPD Narcotics Squad 15. "The Nicholas family is grateful for the work of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office as well as all city, state and federal law enforcement personnel committed to a complete investigation of this terrible incident," the Nicholas family lawyers said. "They remain hopeful that the justice system will succeed in helping prevent other families from ordeals like theirs." During a community meeting in February, Houston police Chief Art Acevedo vowed to end the practice of "no-knock" search warrants. He said officers will need to request a special exemption from his office to conduct a no-knock raid.
Acevedo said at a Friday news conference about the charges that it was with "a heavy heart that we're here but it’s also with a sense of pride in our organization, in that we don't bury our heads in the sand at the Houston Police Department." "When we have an incident where four police officers are shot, another one's seriously injured, and two individuals, Mr. Tuttle and Ms. Nicholas, are shot and killed in a house, we ask tough questions," Acevedo said. He said the police department had been expecting the charges for some time, and that the charges are the result of a Houston police investigation.
"We did pursue the good, the bad and the ugly — as we promised to this community," Acevedo said. He said the police department has "zero tolerance" for police officers that would breach the public trust and their oath of office and commit crimes. He said more charges could be filed in the case. Acevedo said one of the officers who was wounded faces life-changing injuries, including possible paralysis from the waist down. He said the police officers were executing what they thought was a lawful warrant and came under fire.
Ogg announced in February that the office would review more than 1,400 criminal cases spanning Goines' decadeslong career. Prosecutors said in April that 27 of those cases, which were pending at the time, would be dropped.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
68UPDATE: Illicit Deadly No-Knock Houston Raid of Innocent Couple ~ VIDEO
The coverup of what happened to lead to the raid, and what happened in the raid fell apart partly because the lead instigator of the raid, officer Gerald Goines, was wounded in the neck and unable to talk.
The investigation found the officers in the squad were involved in a long-term scheme to steal overtime money.
- Filipe Gallegos was charged with murder in the death of Dennis Tuttle. DA Ogg said the grand jury heard evidence they believed, where Gallegoes committed an intentional homicide against Dennis Tuttle.
- Nadine Ashraf, Cedell Loving, and Oscar Pardo have been charged with organized criminal activity (aggregate theft by a public servant) and first-degree tampering with a governmental record
- Frank Medina and Griff Maxwell have been charged with organized criminal activity (aggregate theft by a public servant) and second-degree tampering with a governmental record.
All of the officers charged, except for Officer Hodgie Armstrong, were members of squad 15 of the HPD Narcotics Division.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
69They are going to look real good in the TDC white prison uniforms. Just aother reason to get rid of the narcotics squads/divisions and legalize the drugs. How many times have we read the news of the narcs being bad cops on the take?DispositionMatrix wrote: Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:04 am UPDATE: Illicit Deadly No-Knock Houston Raid of Innocent Couple ~ VIDEOThe coverup of what happened to lead to the raid, and what happened in the raid fell apart partly because the lead instigator of the raid, officer Gerald Goines, was wounded in the neck and unable to talk.The investigation found the officers in the squad were involved in a long-term scheme to steal overtime money.
- Filipe Gallegos was charged with murder in the death of Dennis Tuttle. DA Ogg said the grand jury heard evidence they believed, where Gallegoes committed an intentional homicide against Dennis Tuttle.
- Nadine Ashraf, Cedell Loving, and Oscar Pardo have been charged with organized criminal activity (aggregate theft by a public servant) and first-degree tampering with a governmental record
- Frank Medina and Griff Maxwell have been charged with organized criminal activity (aggregate theft by a public servant) and second-degree tampering with a governmental record.
All of the officers charged, except for Officer Hodgie Armstrong, were members of squad 15 of the HPD Narcotics Division.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
70Nice to see charges, better when it's convictions and sentencing. Hope the ones at the top of that division were charged, fired or demoted because to the public it looks like a criminal enterprise.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
71The officer who fabricated information to obtain the “no-knock” warrant found guilty of murder.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fo ... rcna172748
This is the correct verdict.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fo ... rcna172748
This is the correct verdict.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
72Agree, it was a good verdict. He'll appeal so we'll see what the appellate courts do.
Hope they win, the Narcotics Unit of HPD believed they were a law unto themselves.Federal civil rights lawsuits the families of Tuttle and Nicholas have filed against Goines and 12 other officers involved in the raid and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
73Sentencing should be today.highdesert wrote: Thu Sep 26, 2024 8:24 am Agree, it was a good verdict. He'll appeal so we'll see what the appellate courts do.
Hope they win, the Narcotics Unit of HPD believed they were a law unto themselves.Federal civil rights lawsuits the families of Tuttle and Nicholas have filed against Goines and 12 other officers involved in the raid and the city of Houston are set to be tried in November.
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
74https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/arti ... ing-trial/The jury was supposed to hear closing arguments before deciding the severity of Goines’s sentence after he was convicted on two counts of felony murder in connection to the Harding Street raid. As of now, it’s unclear when the trial will resume. Ex-Houston Police Department officer Gerald Goines had an apparent medical episode in his chair during closing remarks of the sentencing phase of his murder trial. As a result, the trial has been delayed for the day. The former officer began breathing heavily shortly after prosecutors began closing remarks on Thursday morning. Goines was described as “shameful” by Tanisha Manning, felony division chief with the Harris County DA's office, who told jurors that Goines had a “pattern of corruption” just minutes before the incident. As Goines began to hunch over, the jury was quickly escorted out of the courtroom.
An ambulance arrived at the courthouse shortly after and waited outside for Goines, who was eventually brought out on a gurney surrounded by police. He was quickly loaded into the ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital. The jury was supposed to hear closing arguments before deciding the severity of Goines’s sentence after he was convicted on two counts of felony murder in connection to the Harding Street raid last week. Investigators found that Goines lied to obtain a no-knock warrant to search the home of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas on Jan. 28, 2019. The raid left the couple dead while wounding multiple officers, including Goines.
Prosecutors argued that these lies had directly led to the couple’s deaths – an argument that the jury ultimately agreed with after more than seven hours of deliberation. Now, he faces up to life in prison. Before the incident on Thursday, defense attorney Nicole DeBorde described the former officer as a “big, gentle man” who often worried about the “scourge of drugs” on Houston’s streets, while also devoting time to mentor the children in his life and participate in his church’s congregation. She urged the jury to consider a lesser sentence of five years in prison, claiming that being imprisoned for more than 10 years would be a “death sentence” for the former cop. “Vengeance is not for us, retribution is not for us,” she said. “He will never stop punishing himself until he takes his very last breath.” After about 30 minutes, prosecutors began their closing remarks, which were quickly interrupted. As of now, it’s unclear when the trial will resume.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Re: A fatal Houston drug raid is a familiar story of needless violence, death and destruction
75Sentenced to 60 years, eligible for parole in 30 years. Good enough sentence.
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/arti ... s-houston/
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/arti ... s-houston/