Posted on 11/20/2019 11:20:34 AM PST by abb
HOUSTON – Former Houston police officers Gerald Goines, 55, and Steven Bryant, 46, were both arrested on federal charges Wednesday morning in connection with the botched January Harding Street raid that left two people dead, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The woman who called 911, Patricia Garcia, 53, has also been charged.
On Jan. 28, Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle were killed when several police officers burst into their home at 7851 Harding Street. After officers shot the couple’s dog, Tuttle began firing at officers and they returned fire, killing both Nicholas and Tuttle, officials say. Five HPD officers were also hurt in the gunfire.
Goines and Bryant were both charged in August by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office after months of investigation. Goines faces two counts of murder in Nicholas’ and Tuttle’s deaths. Bryant faces a tampering with government documentation charge in the case.
A federal grand jury returned a 9-count indictment on Nov. 14 that was unsealed Wednesday.
Goines’ federal charges
Counts 1 and 2: Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law
Officials say Goines “willfully deprived” Tuttle and Nicholas of their “right, secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States, for people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against reasonable searches and seizures.”
Counts 3 and 4: Destruction, Alteration, or Falsification of Records in Federal Investigations and Bankruptcy
Goines is accused of making “a false entry in a record, document, and tangible object with intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation and proper administration of the matter within federal jurisdiction.” He is also accused of making a tactical plan and executing it while knowing that there were false statements in it, “including that a confidential informant purchased heroin from 7815 Harding Street on Jan. 27,” officials wrote in the indictment.
Count 4 of the indictment focuses on an accusation that Goines made a false police report claiming an informant bought drugs from the Harding Street home one day before the raid.
Counts 5, 6 and 7: Tampering with a Witness, Victim, or an Informant
Goines is accused of lying on three different occasions to a Houston police officer that either he or an informant bought drugs from the Harding Street home in the days leading up to the fatal raid.
Byrant faces one federal charge of falsifying records in a federal investigation.
Bryant is accused of lying in a police report saying he “had previously assisting Officer Gerald Goines in the investigation on Jan. 27, 2019," and that he said the heroin that was retrieved from Goines’ vehicle was bought from the Harding Street home on Jan. 27, officials wrote in the indictment.
Garcia’s federal charge
Garcia faces a charge of reporting false information.
Officials say on Jan. 8, Garcia made a series of 911 calls that they believe set off the chain of events culminating in the botched raid 20 days later. She allegedly told officials her daughter was inside the home on Harding Street with heavily armed drug dealers. She is accused of falsely reporting that the people in the home were doing crack cocaine and heroin.
If convicted of federal charges, Goines faces up to life in prison. Each obstruction count carries a potential 20-year sentence. Garcia faces a 5-year prison term. Reaction
Mayor Sylvester Turner and Houston City Council members declined to comment on the indictments Wednesday.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo will hold a press conference at noon to address the new charges against the former officers and the botched raid.
Legal counsel for the family of Rhogena Nicholas issued a statement shortly after news of federal charges broke.
“We hope the Nicholas family’s quest for justice in the death of Rhogena will be expedited by the FBI’s actions today. The investigation of the rogue Harding Street raid and the Houston Police Department must continue as far and wide as necessary," wrote Michael Patrick Doyle, LLP. "If city officials continue to refuse to disclose what happened in these HPD killings, we hope federal authorities will do so. The federal indictments confirm the breadth and depth of the lies told to justify the raid before and after the death of Rhogena Nicholas.”
Tuttle’s family also issued a statement through a spokesperson late Wednesday morning.
“The family of Dennis Tuttle has suffered and is still suffering, a long and devastating ordeal. Their sense of loss, as well as their inability to make sense of what happened and why, are as raw today as they were on January 28. They are pleased to learn that the US Attorney is taking this action and to see that the wheels of justice are turning. The family still has very limited information. They still have very many unanswered questions, and like the rest of the world we are eager to see how this plays out in a court of law.”
Recap of the raid
On Jan. 28, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said officers raided a Harding Street residence in the Gloverdale neighborhood as part of a drug investigation. Officers raided the home and were met with an aggressive dog, Acevedo said. One of the officers shot and killed the dog.
Tuttle then walked out of the backroom and used at .357 revolver to start shooting at officers, Acevedo said. He wounded one of the officers who then fell on a living room couch. Officials said Nicholas then tried to reach for his gun.
Officers returned fire, killing both Tuttle and Nicholas, Acevedo said.
ping
Drug laws give unscrupulous law enforcers way too much power. I would rather deal with crazed drug users than powerful law enforcers but nobody wants to make that change.
These are crooked, murdering cops. Hope the entire book is thrown at them.
Those two cowboys need to get ready for a gurney ride in Huntsville. That’s what I’d vote for if, if I were on the jury.
They will die in prison.................sooner or later...............
Were there any state charges filed?.....................
Federal Indictment Says Deadly Houston Drug Raid Was Based on Lies From Start to Finish
Counts One and Two carry a possible death sentence.
Which both of these ***holes deserve.
L
I’m surprised they are prosecuting. These two seem eminently qualified to work at DEA.
Acevedo needs to held responsible too. He allowed the no-knock raid. He should be in jail.
So they were arrested at Dawn by a phalanx of 30 SWAT Federal agents backed up by helicopters and boats like Roger Stone?
No?!
I guess gunfights and dead people everywhere are nowhere near as dangerous as making a statement the Democrat prosecutors disagree with. We got our priorities straight in the US!
Just wait till Red Flag laws are passed. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Based on excerpt above, FBI was reasonably working under Congress’s express 14th Amendment (14A) powers imo.
From the 14th Amendment:
"Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States [emphasis added]; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
"Section 5: The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
Are FBI agents and police officers taught about 14A protections as part of their training?
Otherwise, now with the exception of 14A-related issues, the congressional record shows the following. Rep. John Bingham, the main author of section 1, had officially clarified that the Founding States had never given the feds the specific power to stick their big noses (my wording) into peacetime penal laws, patriots needing to be vigilant for post-17th Amendment ratification, unconstitutionally big feds wrongly doing so.
"Our Constitution never conferred upon the Congress of the United States the power - sacred as life is, first as it is before all other rights which pertain to man on this side of the grave - to protect it in time of peace by the terrors of the penal code within organized states; and Congress has never attempted to do it. There never was a law upon the United States statute-book to punish the murderer for taking away in time of peace the life of the noblest, and the most unoffending, as well, of your citizens, within the limits of any State of the Union, The protection of the citizen in that respect was left to the respective States, and there the power is to-day [emphases added].” —Rep. John Bingham, Congressional Globe. (See bottom half of third column.)
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
Corrections, insights welcome.
Remember in November 2020!
MAGA! Now KAG! (Keep America Great!)
What a mess
So was the neighbor Patricia Garcia a delusional nutcase or just disgruntled about about something.
I hope they lock her ass up for the maximum time. She should be prosecuted for felony murder for swatting her neighbors.
With the federal charges, Police Chief Acevedo has completely spun around 180 degrees.
Up through today, he has been saying the police were in the right, and the Tuttles were in the wrong.
Now, he has completely turned around on the Tuttles. I expect he has talked to department lawyers about penalties for deprivation of rights under color of law.
The family has filed lawsuits.
This was all being swept under the rug by the HPD. The local forensics investigation seems to have been a joke.
It was the Harris County Prosecutor that first brought charges, now the independent investigation by the FBI and a federal grand jury.
Acevedo is trying to claim that it was his department that uncovered things, all along...
He can claim a little credit, but the Prosecutor and the FBI had to fight the locals for a good bit, as I recall.
That is a perfect example of what will happen under a red flag law.
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