Former HPD cop Gerald Goines released on bond for felony murder charges in deaths of Houston couple
By Michelle Homer, Jeremy Rogalski and Grace White
KHOU 11
August 23, 2019
HOUSTON — Gerald Goines, the ex-Houston police officer who led the controversial no-knock raid on Harding Street, has been charged with two counts of felony murder, as KHOU 11 Investigates reporter Jeremy Rogalski first reported.
His attorney, Nicole DeBorde, said Goines was surprised by the charges.
Goines surrendered Friday afternoon and his bond was set at $150,000 on each charge. Goines made bond Friday evening.
He is required to wear a GPS monitor and won't be allowed to have weapons or leave Harris County.
Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas were shot to death in the Jan. 28 botched drug raid in southeast Houston.
Goines and four other officers were injured in the chaotic shootout.
“We have not seen a case like this in Houston. I have not seen a case like this in 30 plus years of practicing law," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Friday during a press conference.
Ogg says she wants to tell the Tuttle and Nicholas families how sorry they are for the loss of their lives.
Former Officer Steven Bryant, who was involved with the Harding Street warrant, is charged with second-degree tampering with a government document. His bond was set at $50,000. He will also wear a GPS monitor and can't leave Harris or Fort Bend counties.
"HPD’s responsibility is to protect and serve. The overwhelming number of police officers do that every day, often at the expense of their safety." Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement. "We hope and pray that the community and police will continue to work together for the safety of our city.”
Prosecutors are now pouring over 14,000 cases related to the officers. Since the news broke, the entire HPD narcotics division has been under a microscope. Ogg is looking at their work now to see if other cases have been impacted across Houston.
Ogg's office has dismissed dozens of pending cases dismissed and attorneys have even been notified in cases that have already closed. All the while, the district attorney pledges she's not done.
"We recognize that our duty is to the people of this county. That while today the focus is on Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant, there may be more to the story," Ogg said.
The 14,000 cases include 2,200 drug cases linked to the two former HPD officers now facing criminal charges.
However, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo believes it's not a department wide problem.
"We've been looking at a lot of cases and we have yet to see it again, any evidence of any systemic issues," Acevedo said.
But he anticipates more charges will be filed, at least against Goines.
Although charges are up to the district attorney, Houston police say it's all coming from their own investigation. The district attorney just got funding to hire ten new prosecutors and investigators to work on the mountain of a review.
The day after the raid, Acevedo described Goines, who had been shot two previous times as an undercover cop, as a "big teddy bear with tremendous heart and courage."
In a Friday news conference, the chief changed his tune about Goines and Bryant but defended the other officers involved in the raid.
"I think we were all taken for a ride by two of them, but I still believe those officers that went in there acted in good faith on behalf of this community," Acevedo said. "I still think they're heroes."
In the Harding Street warrant, Goines claimed a confidential informant bought black tar heroin at the home of Tuttle and Nicholas the night before the raid. He claimed the informant saw a lot more heroin and a 9mm pistol inside the home.
In a search of the home after the shootout, officers didn't find any heroin or 9mm pistol.
The only drug found in the house was marijuana.
The informants later told investigators they never bought drugs from Harding Street.
Ogg says it's not clear why Goines and Bryant allegedly lied on the warrant.
“Motive is something we don’t know. How can we know what lies in hearts and minds?”
Attorneys representing Nicholas' family recently claimed a private investigation found she was shot from outside of her home.
They also said a neighbor has cell phone video of two gunshots fired inside the home 30 minutes after the shootout ended.
"Somebody took a gun at some point, likely long after Dennis Tuttle was dead -- at least based on physical evidence -- and went to a wall and fired two shots into a wall," attorney Mike Doyle alleged. "That's also been documented by physical chemical tests."
Doyle filed a petition with probate court requesting depositions from the officers to address these findings. Read the entire petition here.
KHOU 11 Investigates examined 109 other drug cases Goines filed based on a search warrant between 2012 and present day. In every one of those cases in which he claimed confidential informants observed guns inside, no weapons were ever recovered, according to evidence logs Goines filed with the court.
The District Attorney's Office is reviewing more than 2,000 cases involving Goines and dozens of charges were dismissed.
They are also reviewing 800 cases involving Bryant, the other HPD officer involved with the warrant.
At one point, the DA's office threatened legal action against HPD if it didn't turn over documents related to the deadly raid. The documents involved information on all HPD informants dating back five years ago to now.
The two agencies eventually reached an agreement for the remaining records to be provided.
The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the raid and Harris County.
Bryant and Goines were relieved of duty during the investigation and later allowed to retire.
The raid led to multiple policy changes within the Houston Police Department and an FBI civil rights investigation.
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HPD chief double downs on comments: 'I stand by that, we had probable cause to be there'
By Mario Diaz
Click2Houston
August 23, 2019
HOUSTON - The first mug shots of former Houston Police Department narcotics Officers Gerald Goines and Stephen Bryant were released Friday night.
The images were released hours after an announcement was made by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg regarding alleged criminality, including two murder charges, by HPD officers in the deadly botched raid on Harding Street nearly seven months ago.
The raid claimed the lives of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas.
Ogg had a message to the families of the victims during her lengthy news conference.
"I want to tell them how sorry we are as a city and as a county for the actions that resulted in the loss of their loved ones' lives," she said.
Channel 2 Investigates was in court Friday as Goines and Bryant went before the judge.
Following their bond hearing, Goines' attorney, Nicole DeBorde, expressed her dismay over her client being directly charged unexpectedly.
"A little disappointed and surprised that in a case that is as serious as this one, the district attorney's office did not bother to vet it with a grand jury," DeBorde said.
Hours after the charges were announced, Chief Art Acevedo held his own news conference. The chief answered a lot of questions but did not want to answer one of Channel 2's inquiries, telling reporter Sophia Beausoleil, “I'm not going to get into a debate with Mr. (Mario) Diaz you know on every little piece.”
The chief was not happy with a question regarding an exchange from last Feb. 15. During an interview, the chief said, "It's really important for the community to realize, we still had a reason to be at that home.”
Channel 2 Investigates reminded Acevedo: "Chief, you indicated you had reason to be at that home. There appears to be no reason listed in this affidavit."
Acevedo’s response was, “But remember, that affidavit is but one piece of a very comprehensive investigation."
However, on Friday, when a reporter asked about it on two occasions, Acevedo had this reaction: "I stand by that. We had probable cause to be there."
When the question of a right to be in the home was asked again, the chief said: “Tell Mario Diaz that I think it's great that he's watching and that I appreciate it, but the probable cause, let me just tell you this … if I was investigating this we would have done a search warrant based on what we knew, we would have done it right and we probably wouldn't be here today."
The chief then added a bit later: "We are a nation where the rule of law matters, so tell Mario thanks for watching. I appreciate it."
We are hoping the chief addresses the question in full in the near future.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Right after the botched raid, Acevedo shot off his mouth alleging facts that were not in evidence. Now he claims there was probable cause for the raid. What a schmuck!
There was no probable cause because Goins made up a non-existent drug buy by a non-existent informant in the affidavit. However, once the search warrant was issued, the officers had the right to raid the Harding Street home, even though the affidavit upon which the warrant was based was fabricated.
Something tells me that Goins had a personal beef with Tuttle and Nicholas.
7 comments:
Speculation is non-productive in this case. Let's wait on the trial before bringing additional conspiracy theories into the case.
I find the bit about the guns especially troubling. If you have a lot of "drug raids" when "confidential informants" say there are guns present (which you would expect) and no guns are recovered there is SOMETHING wrong. Someone should have noticed and done something about it before this bucket of crap dropped in their laps.
Trey, you're losing it. What conspiracy theories? HPD's internal investigation found there was no informant and the 'drug buy' consisted of heroin baggies that Goins had stashed away. This is a crystal clear case of a fabricated search warrant affidavit that led to the deaths of the homeowners on Harding Street and the wounding of four officers.
And Bob, you need to rethink what you said. A non-existent informant said there were guns in the house. But when they executed the search warrant, they did not find the guns mentioned in the phony affidavit. There is no way the cops could have known the guns were not there before the botched raid occurred.
"Something tells me that Goins had a personal beef with Tuttle and Nicholas."
Is that not a conspiracy theory? C'mon Howie. You wrote it. Last line. I'm losing it?
Howie, that is very true, the first time or two or three or four. At some point, before this point, someone further up the food chain should have noticed that something did not add up. That is the point I was try to make.
To you it's a conspiracy theory. To me it seems only logical that there had to be something personal between Goins and Tuttle. Why else would a op fabricate an informant buying heroin from a man who had only a small amount of pot for personal use with no evidence whatsoever of any heroin, packaging paraphernalia or scale being in Tuttle's home.
There is a difference between theory and logic.
Call it what you want. Does anyone else smell Bullshit?
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