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.
[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 don't think it has been positively established that the Tuttles and their dog did anything but get killed.
It's about time... For the past 3-decades, the sole purpose of SWAT raids has been to create fear in the mostly honest & hard-working citizenry... Control of the serfs has been the only thing on the minds of the communists who have thoroughly infiltrated and significantly controlled our government since the peanut farmer was president...
First, the RICO scam... Then, beginning with the Clintons, the militarization of the police and, continuing under Bush and Obunghole, passing hundreds of thousands of seemingly innocuous laws and rules to assure perpetual virtual criminality among the honest population...
At any time, every citizen can be taken off the street or out of life at the whim of today's local, state, & federal politicians...
And why not? The bulk of the Nation's citizens stood by and allowed all those many unthinkable "test runs" to go unchallenged...
Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Bush, Obunghole... All these treasonous scum have accomplished most of what Stalin, and, later, Kruschev (Quote: (Нравится вам или нет, но история на нашей стороне. Мы вас закопае)) planned and schemed for...
So, anyone who is "shocked" by the blatant attempted coup that is underway has, clearly, been living with their head up their anal regions for the past 6-decades...
PDs like HPD are NOT rare.
Cops like Goines are NOT rare.
Enablers, like HPD leadership and rank & file are NOT rare.
Acevedo needs to go back to Austin.
Tuttle then walked out of the backroom and used at .357 revolver to start shooting at officers, Acevedo said.
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Acevedo initially backed the officers doing the raid.
Remember, he implicitly suggested swatting calls on gun owners when he was chief of Austin PD.
I am surprised Kim Ogg is bringing charges.
Meanwhile Acevedo is in the CYA mode.
I am no longer a Houston resident.
Acevedo needs to go back to California. The rank and file in Austin hated Acevedo.
“Any police department (or university faculty, or military unit, etc.) is only as good as the worst psycho they tolerate.” ~ H/T RedStateRocker
Your Cop Card is null and void!
I'd be interested to know if either of these two mutts failed their pre-employment psyc eval. and if so will the person who hired a known sociopath be held accountable as a accessory before the fact...
And Austin can send their police chief to Houston .... pass the trash.
Good! I hope that they hang them. If nothing else, having to defend them in Federal Court will seriously deplete the union’s treasury.
9 charges! Crooks going after crooks! Ahhh the irony! I hope that they are convicted on each one and the sentences run consecutively!
Amen to that!
State Charges had already been filed against the Officers.
From what I read, he fought it tooth and toenail. To the bitter end. Now they claim credit.
He certainly fought it for a good bit.
He did not cooperate with the Harris County prosecutor, as far as I can tell.
Note: no arrests or charges that started in the Houston Police Department.
You defended this raid many times in previous posts and articles. Just wanted to check on your status.
“Unscrupulous law enforcers way too much power.”
Which is why you need to elect a pro-2nd amendment, constitutional sheriff in your county. This sheriff has the legal and armed muscle to take out rogue cops and police chiefs.
I have one in my county. To date, he has removed two police chiefs who were harassing citizens. He has also barred one chicken-chit state cop from entering the county.
Try a constitutional sheriff in your county. Your quality of life will improve ten-fold.
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