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Worth calling out:

‘It would be easy to blame this scandal on a malicious tipster and a couple of rogue cops. But the indictment of Goines, Bryant and Garcia is also an indictment of the policies and practices that allowed this disastrous operation to unfold.

‘Michael Doyle, a lawyer hired by Nicholas’ family, says supervisors let the raid go forward even though they knew Goines had not properly documented his contact with the fictitious informant. Although Goines supposedly had been investigating Tuttle and Nicholas for two weeks, he did not know their names. And although his affidavit said he had “advised” the informant that “narcotics were being sold and stored” at the house, he cited no evidence of that.

‘Goines had a history of mishandling evidence and making dubious statements under oath. Over 12 years, the Houston Chronicle found, Goines obtained nearly 100 no-knock warrants like the one used in this case, almost always claiming that informants had seen firearms in the homes he wanted to search. But he reported recovering guns only once, a pattern no one seems to have noticed.

‘The Chronicle also found that, notwithstanding an expert consensus that undercover officers should be frequently rotated to other assignments, 71 officers have served a decade or more in the HPD’s Narcotics Division, which at the time of the Harding Street raid had gone 19 years without an audit. You can start to see how the division might have developed a culture of insularity and impunity that led Goines to believe he could get away with his deadly fraud.

‘The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing more than 2,000 cases in which Goines and Bryant were involved and has already dropped charges against dozens of defendants. Yet even after Goines’ lies were revealed, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said, “I don’t have any indication it’s a pattern and practice.”’