Charges dismissed for 8 Houston police officers linked to deadly 2019 Harding Street raid
HOUSTON, Texas – The Harris County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday that 17 charges against eight of the Houston Police Department officers linked to the deadly January 2019 Harding Street raid have been dismissed.
This comes months after a Harris County Grand Jury reindicted seven of the eight officers in October 2024 shortly after HPD narcotics officer Gerald Goines was handed his 60-year prison sentence.
During his sentencing, former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said she planned to go after members of Goines’ team with “organized crime” charges, tied to the alleged overtime fraud scheme.
Current Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare had different plans saying, in part, “Today the Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed 17 charges against 8 Houston Police Department officers associated with the Harding Street raid. The decision was made after a thorough review of the facts clearly demonstrated that there was insufficient evidence to prove that any of these crimes were committed beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The following former officers have had their charges dismissed:
Hodgie Bernard Armstrong, Jr (retired, no longer with HPD) - The following charges were dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity, tampering with records, theft by a public servant.
Thomas Alan Wood (retired, no longer with HPD) - The following charges were dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity, tampering with records, theft by a public servant.
Clemente Robles Reyna, Jr (retired, no longer with HPD) - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity, three counts of tampering with records, theft by a public servant.
Frank Medina (resigned, no longer with HPD) - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity.
Oscar Pardo (resigned, no longer with HPD) - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity.
Griff Maxwell (retired, no longer with HPD) - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity.
Nadeen Ashraf - (resigned, no longer with HPD) - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity added his name
Felipe Gallegos - The following charge was dismissed: engaging in organized criminal activity
What happened
The Harding Street Raid occurred on Jan. 28, 2019, when Houston police officers raided a house on Harding Street in the Pecan Park neighborhood in what was believed to be a part of a drug investigation.
The deadly raid resulted in the deaths of Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his 58-year-old wife, Rhogena Nicholas.
Goines, who was found guilty of murder in connection to the case, lied to obtain the warrant to search the couple’s home. Goines claimed a confidential informant had bought heroin at the home. But the informant told investigators no such drug buy ever happened, authorities said. Police found small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house, but no heroin.
When officers entered the home using a “no-knock” warrant that didn’t require them to announce themselves before entering, they were met with gunfire. Friends and family of Tuttle and Nicholas said they were not criminals and suggested during the Goines trial that the couple might have thought they were being attacked by intruders.
Five officers, including Goines, were injured in the raid.
The raid resulted in 12 officers being charged and Goines being convicted of murder. Since then, several of those officers charged have seen their charges dismissed.
Nicholas’ family’s attorney provided the following comment:
“The decision whether Narcotics Division officers improperly collected overtime money for over many years was done criminally, or not, is up to the grand jury that indicted these officers and the District Attorney’s office making a decision about whether they can get a conviction.
After reviewing the filing by the District Attorneys’ office about the way HPD’s managers didn’t pay proper attention to something as basic as overtime, it is even more clear that Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle’s murders directly resulted from an out of control Narcotics Division without the supervision needed to protect our citizens from rogue HPD officers. We look forward to revealing this lack of accountability by HPD’s managers fully at trial in May.”
Teare’s full statement:
“Nothing about these dismissals changes the fact that the Harding Street raid should have never happened. As the chief law enforcement officer of Harris County, I want people to know that we remain steadfast in our commitment to uncovering and addressing corruption wherever it may be found – but we will always be guided by the facts, not politics.
These charges were kept on life-support by the previous District Attorney to generate headlines, damaging the reputations of the officers and the Houston Police Department, and they inevitably fell apart under the weight of the truth. As District Attorney, I am determined to pursue real justice instead of using the lives of innocent public servants to score political points.
These officers and their families have endured four years of hardship,
forced to live under a cloud of suspicion and accusations of corruption.
Despite the lack of evidence, they were subjected to an investigation
designed to wrongfully link them to the very real, heinous crimes
committed by Gerald Goines.”
1 comment:
Good to know that the police can still murder people and get away with it. It's very hard to believe that the other police officers did not know about Goines and how he conducted his police business.
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