The Houston Police narcotics officer at the center of the deadly botched raid has been charged with murder:
A former Houston Police Department narcotics officer has been charged with first-degree murder, nearly seven months after a botched drug raid that left a couple dead and unleashed a sprawling police scandal.
Ex-case agent Gerald Goines on Friday was hit with two counts of felony murder and is still under investigation over claims he stole guns, drugs and money, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced at a news conference downtown. His partner, Steven Bryant, was also charged with one count of tampering.
The two former officers both turned themselves in Friday in court, where a judge set Goines’ bond at $300,000 and Bryant’s at $50,000. Aside from the arrests, prosecutors said a review of more than 14,000 cases and a broader investigation into the rest of the squad is still underway.
“We have not seen a case like this in Houston,” Ogg said. “I have not seen a case like this in my 30-plus years of practicing law.”
Snip.
On Jan. 28, Houston narcotics officers burst into the house at 7815 Harding Street looking for heroin.
The raid went awry almost immediately, with gunfire erupting moments after an undercover narcotics team broke down the door to the Pecan Park home. Dennis Tuttle and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, were killed and five officers were injured, including Goines.
Police said they were looking for heroin dealers, but the raid only turned up small, user-level amounts of cocaine and marijuana. In the days that followed, an internal investigation sparked questions about the officers’ justification for the search warrant. Though a sworn affidavit – signed by case Goines – recounted a controlled buy made by a confidential informant, police quickly realized they could not verify that claim or find the alleged informant.
When questioned about it, Goines eventually admitted there wasn’t one, Ogg told reporters Friday. Instead, he allegedly said he made the buy himself before conceding that he couldn’t confirm Tuttle was the same man he’d bought the drugs from.
If the charges against Goines are true, he’s going to rank pretty highly on the “infamous rouge cops” list.
(Previously.)
(Hat tip: Dwight.)
Tags: Crime, Follow-Up, Gerald Goines, Houston, Houston Police Department, Kim Ogg, Steven Bryant, Texas