Officer’s past includes claims of lying, mishandling evidence

Even before the deadly drug raid that left two civilians dead, Houston Police officer Gerald Goines had a troubling history of allegations against him.

The undercover case agent had been involved in multiple shootings, racked up a smattering of written reprimands, faced several lawsuits and is accused of fabricating a drug deal, then lying about it in court to win a conviction against a man who has long maintained he’s innocent, according to a Houston Chronicle review of internal police records and court documents.

Through it all, the longtime narcotics officer consistently received glowing reviews and praise from supervisors who called his work “impressive” and wrote that he set a “good example for new officers in the squad,” according to police records. Last month, as Goines lay in the hospital after the gun battle, Chief Art Acevedo praised his

courage, describing the 54-yearold sergeant as “strong as an ox” and “tough as nails.”

But on Friday, Acevedo offered a much different narrative. Now, he said, the veteran officer — who’s still in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck — could face criminal charges after investigators realized they couldn’t find the informant reportedly behind the undercover buy used to justify the no-knock warrant.

Law enforcement experts say that’s indicative of a unit without sufficient oversight, where repeated complaints and lawsuits don’t lead to any apparent internal review.

“The number and type of incidents should be a red flag for any police organization to go back and look at exactly what happened in any and all of the incidents,” said Larry Karson, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston-Downtown.

Previous buys questioned

Previous allegations surfaced about Goines in at least two drug buys, with the officer accused of lying under oath and mishandling drug evidence, and questions arising about his use of a confidential informant.

One of those cases — which stems from a decade-old drug bust — is still winding its way through the appeals process, as attorneys for 63-year-old Otis Mallet argue that he’s innocent and was wrongfully convicted in 2011 as the result of the case agent’s alleged misconduct.

The conviction stemmed from a drug bust three years earlier, in which Goines met up with Mallet’s brother for an undercover buy. Goines planned to make a crack bust with $200 of police money, which he allegedly handed over to Mallet’s brother, Steven. Afterward, Goines said, he watched Steven go over to Mallet, who plucked something out of a can in his truck and exchanged it for the cash. Steven then returned with thecrack, according to court records.

Goines was the only witness to the alleged deal. After he drove away, backup officers swooped in to make the arrest, seizing a can containing crack cocaine from behind the house next door. When the case made it to trial, Goines testified in court that he watched Mallet take the can from his truck and put it by the neighbors’ house while police were arresting Steven.

But two neighbors disputed that, one of whom said she’d been talking to Mallet during the arrest and that he hadn’t moved anything.

During the bust, police seized $1,668 in cash, but the $200 in buy money had been initially marked as “LOST.” The following month it was noted as an expense allegedly paid to a confidential informant. But Goines never mentioned the informant in his narrative during trial or in incident reports, and it’s not clear if the alleged snitch actually existed.

Though Mallet’s brother pleaded guilty to time served in order to get out of jail, he refused the first plea offer that would have required him to attest to his brother’s guilt. Mallet, meanwhile, took the case to trial, but the state never told defense attorneys about the inconsistencies or the suspect existence of the confidential informant.

Instead, the allegations came to light after attorney Jonathan Landers filed an appeal claiming the state had suppressed evidence that could have supported the defense’s theory that someone else hid the drugs.

“The new evidence discovered in this case shows that Officer Goines testified falsely and that no drug deal, as described by Goines, took place,” Landers wrote in court documents. “Mallet was convicted based on Goines’ perjured testimony.”

Although Mallet is out, the appeal has been sitting in front of a local judge for more than a year. If a court sides with him, it could pave the way to overturning his conviction and qualifying for state compensation for the years spent behind bars.

Earning accolades

A competitive powerlifter, Goines joined the Houston Police Department in 1984, and his work soon earned notice and accolades.

One early commendation came in 1987, after he investigated a burglary in far southeast Houston. But that same year, he received his first reprimand after confronting a person — it’s not clear if a civilian or a fellow officer — with a possibly intimidating suggestion: “We need to go to the gym and straighten this out man-to-man,” he said.

Over the years, he racked up several other blemishes to his record, including one, that same year, for failing to show up at court to respond to a subpoena.

His managers praised him, however, for his fast response to burglary calls, his work on a tactical team in southeast Houston and his role in an undercover investigation into a south Houston hotel doubling as a hotspot for prostitutes and drugs.

Even after the allegations emerged Friday, a former supervisor stuck up for him, mostly.

“He was a good narcotics officer. He’s not corrupt, but he’s lazy with his paperwork,” the ex-officer said. “He has a history of not doing his reports until afterwards.”

Roadway gunbattle

Five years later, Goines was at the center of another controversial shooting that began when he was driving south in an unmarked car while undercover and tried to merge onto the Southwest Freeway.

But the driver of a Chevy allegedly cut Goines off, and the two men “exchanged looks and possibly hand signs over the incident,” according to Chronicle archives.

A police spokesman said that after seeing a gun in the car, Goines called for backup and followed the vehicle as it exited the loop onto the service road. The Chevy’s driver, Reginald Dorsey, then leaned out of his car and started shooting at Goines, who returned fire from a moving vehicle.

Dorsey was hit and died from his injuries. Goines recovered and returned to duty.

There was no mention of the incident in his personnel file.

Shooting, suspension

In July 2002, the officer was wrapped up in another shooting — one that occurred while he was off-duty, returning to his southwest Houston apartment with his 10-year-old daughter.

As he was walking to his apartment, two people accosted him and tried to rob him at gunpoint, according to Chronicle archives. Goines grabbed his own pistol and shot one of the assailants, James Sullivan, 17, in the abdomen. Sullivan survived, and was later charged. A grand jury nobilled the officer.

In 2005, he received another reprimand after responding to a domestic violence call. Six years later, he was suspended for one day, documents show, after an incident in which a relative called and told him she had been sexually assaulted.

Goines had driven to the dealership where the alleged perpetrator worked and gotten into a physical confrontation with the man.

The officer’s actions “are a clear indication of a lack of sound judgment,” then-Chief Charles A. McClelland wrote in a letter informing Goines of his suspension.

Work praised

Despite the shootings and occasional reprimands, Goines generally garnered positive evaluations.

In 2009, supervisors wrote that he “is a squad leader and actively volunteers to assist colleagues in the performance of their duties… (and) utilizes CIs to positive ends and performs routine duties with the highest level of safety awareness.”

In 2012, supervisors praised his role helping investigate a sports bar owner who was selling drugs, and allowing illegal gambling and alcohol sales. The investigation ended with 15 people arrested on drug or weapons charges, 16 gun seizures, and $12,000 seized in cash.

In 2013, he was lauded for his role in a highway drug seizure that netted more than 26 kilograms of cocaine.

That same year, though, he led a raid that ended in gunfire and eventually a lawsuit. Police burst into a south Houston home looking for Dominick Benard, a man they suspected of selling PCP.

Police later said that Benard appeared to be reaching for a weapon and ignored verbal commands, so one of the officers shot him in the stomach.

HPD officials said the day after the raid that Benard ignored repeated verbal commands to show his hands. Benard, however, testified that he raised his hands as soon as police flooded the small home.

“When they said, ‘Freeze,’ I threw my hands up and that’s when I got shot,” Benard said, disputing that account in court documents. “It happened too fast. They didn’t give me a chance to say nothing, do nothing. They just came in and shot.”

The then-38-year-old spent two months in a coma and all of his fingers and toes were amputated, records show.

During the raid, officers found 122 grams of PCP, a gram of marijuana, and two firearms, according to a search warrant return, but prosecutors ultimately dismissed charges against him when they decided they couldn’t prove the drugs were his, according to criminal justice sources.

A federal judge dismissed Benard’s claims against the city, the police department and Goines, but allowed the lawsuit against another officer to proceed. The city eventually paid $85,000 to settle the case.

Internal investigation

Acevedo said Friday that Goines has been removed from duty pending the investigation, and vowed the department would review his previous cases.

Karson, the criminal justice expert, said the Houston Police Department has a responsibility to look at what happened and examine how to address future problems.

“Some recognize that after a number of years of working in a field such as narcotics it might be appropriate to rotate an officer out of that stressful position,” he said. “The reason for rotating somebody out is you can quickly become cynical from the work and it may end up leading to a compromise of your ethics, never mind the mental damage it can do to you and how you perceive the people you serve.”

Karson said the case appears similar to one in Atlanta in which officers executed a drug raid on the wrong house and then shot a 92-year-old woman in the home. The officers were eventually sentenced to federal prison and the city reached a nearly $5 million settlement with the woman’s family, according to news reports of the incident.

Defense attorney Doug Murphy, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, said the investigation now poses a problem for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

“His trustworthiness is completely in question,” Murphy said. “If this guy has done this once, he’s done it many, many times.”