DA asks to dismiss officer’s murder charge
Harris County prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to dismiss murder charges against a Houston police officer accused of killing a Houston homeowner during a January 2019 drug raid later proved to be based on a lie.
In a news release, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said prosecutors sought to have murder charges against Felipe Gallegos dismissed after misconduct by a former prosecutor handling the case raised concerns about his judgment.
Prosecutors plan to have a new grand jury review the case to determine if an indictment is warranted, according to the news release.
“People’s lives hang in the balance of every decision that we make, and it is incumbent upon me as District Attorney to have this situation re-reviewed to ensure justice in this case, as in every case,” Ogg said.
Gallegos’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, said he was “delighted” by the news and confident that if other grand juries reviewed the case they would not indict Gallegos.
“I think this is only a matter of time before this is all over,” he said, adding that Gallegos was “totally not guilty.”
“It’s unfortunate he still has to go through more of this,” he said. “But I think this is the beginning of the end of any prosecution of murder against him.”
Gallegos will have the option of having his version of the facts presented to grand jurors and testifying, should he choose to do so, Ogg said.
Ogg’s comments come almost seven months after a grand jury first issued the murder indictment against Gallegos. In the days that followed, Hardin — who said Gallegos had not known about Goines’ alleged misconduct and had acted as a “hero” to defend his fellow officers — excoriated Ogg for not allowing his client to speak to the grand jury.
“This is a violation of how the criminal justice system ought to work,” he said in a heated January news conference.
The police officer is one of 11 current and former officers who came under scrutiny after the Harding Street drug raid, which ended with the deaths of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle. In the raid, Squad 15 narcotics officers, using a no-knock warrant, burst into Tuttle’s home looking for drugs. Gunfire erupted, ending with the deaths of the two homeowners and four officers shot.
In the days after the operation, police announced that Gerald Goines, a veteran narcotics officer and the leader of the raid, was under investigation for lying about buying drugs from the Harding Street home. The scandal prompted several other investigations, including a federal civil rights probe, and a massive review by the District Attorney’s Office of cases that Goines and his colleagues had handled.
A termination letter shows that the former prosecutor was Coby Leslie, an assistant district attorney in the civil rights division. According to the termination letter, Leslie was transferred from Civil Rights to the Intake Bureau as a result of his failure to notify his superior about absences and a “lack of responsiveness on important matters.”
Leslie also emailed “detailed, confidential information” about active criminal investigations to people with “no connection” with the cases. The letter also accused him of insubordinance.
“Your conduct violated your duty to maintain such information confidentially,” the letter noted. “This is simply unacceptable.”
Leslie could not be reached for comment.
“This is a gut punch, no question about it,” said Boyd Smith, the Tuttle family attorney in a lawsuit against the city. “The Tuttle family respects Kim Ogg’s effort to prosecute those who are responsible for murdering Dennis Tuttle, but to have that process delayed because of the behavior of a single prosecutor is more than disappointing — it hurts. What seems to be lost here is any focus on what this family has gone through, what they continue to go through …”
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith, who has steadfastly argued that a murder charge was not warranted against Gallegos, said he was “glad” to learn prosecutors had dropped the charge.
“We believe this was an overreach from day one,” he said. “And now we see why.”
The scandal resulted in multiple investigations, and state and federal charges against Goines, and his partner, Steven Bryant. Goines now faces felony murder charges in state court, and civil rights violations and tampering charges in federal court. Bryant faces tampering charges in state and federal court. Patricia Garcia, the woman charged with lying in 911 calls that led to the raid, was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison.
Gallegos, who was charged with the death of Tuttle, remains charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.