Errors in Goines case delay justice
For five years, the murder trial of disgraced Houston police officer Gerald Goines has been mired in an endless procession of delays, motions, hearings and depositions.
The prosecutors, defense and a previous presiding judge all bear responsibility for allowing this case to fester for so long and prevent the victims of the violent Harding Street raid in 2019 from receiving closure. Yet when we last checked in with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in January, a spokesman assured us “the state is ready to go” to trial.
During a hearing Tuesday, District Court Judge Veronica Nelson begged to differ. The onus is on the prosecutors to correct their missteps quickly and get their case back on track.
Nelson took over the Goines case when the previous judge, Frank Aguilar, was suspended after a domestic violence accusation. That gave the defense an opening to ask the new judge to consider their motion to quash the two felony murder indictments against Goines. Aguilar indicated last year he would overrule the defense’s motion to dismiss the charges as filed.
Nelson, on the other hand, agreed with the defense’s argument that the indictments lacked specificity, primarily regarding the underlying charge of tampering with a governmental record. The indictment posited that Goines obtained a no-knock warrant to raid the Harding Street home of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle based on an allegedly fabricated statement from a confidential informant who claimed to have bought heroin there. The no-knock warrant led to a bloody shootout between the couple and HPD officers that left Nicholas and Tuttle dead and four officers wounded, including one who was paralyzed from the waist down. The only drugs found in the home were small amounts of cocaine and marijuana that were for personal use.
Yet Goines’ attorneys noted that the indictment failed to even identify the document that was tampered with, “nor the specific statement within the document, that allegedly was false.”
Mac Secrest, who is part of Goines’ defense team, told the editorial board that when Nelson took over for Aguilar, their updated motion on March 6 to dismiss, cited case law to show that the state’s indictment was unprecedented. The prosecution never bothered to file a response rebutting that, according to court records.
“We haven’t been able to find a case ever in the history of American jurisprudence where felony murder has been indicted under these circumstances,” Secrest told us. “You have a right to be notified in an indictment as to what it is the grand jury has accused you of. And maybe more importantly, you have the right to make sure that, if you’re ultimately convicted, you’re convicted of the very offense that you were indicted for.”
That Harris County prosecutors apparently failed to explain charges in such a high-profile case is, itself, a damning indictment of their lack of diligence and attention to detail. It continues a troubling pattern of poor judgment under District Attorney Kim Ogg’s leadership. In the Harding Street case alone, it’s the second such instance of a mishandled prosecution: In August 2021, a judge dismissed murder charges against Felipe Gallegos, an HPD officer who participated in the raid, because of prosecutorial misconduct. Gallegos was never reindicted.
Ogg’s failure to take responsibility for the error is nearly as disappointing
as the error itself. In a statement, she accused the defense of pushing “another delay tactic” but also blamed Nelson for forcing the state to revisit the case, “knowing that her predecessor had already ruled the defendant’s position meritless.”
Court records actually don’t show that Aguilar issued a formal ruling.
Ogg’s chiding of Judge Nelson is bad form, particularly considering that she was a longtime prosecutor who worked for Ogg and led the misdemeanor and felony divisions over the course of her 10 years with the DA’s office. That Nelson ruled on the motion differently than Aguilar would have does not reflect any particular bias; she appeared to weigh the matter carefully. During the hearing Nelson said she reviewed Aguilar’s previous records and indicated she did her homework before granting such a consequential motion.
Given that Ogg is exiting in December, having lost the Democratic primary election, prosecutors need to get this case moving again as soon as possible. While we’d assume the new DA would pick up the baton and continue prosecuting this case — Democratic nominee Sean Teare already told us he would — we’d prefer for the case to be resolved by the administration most familiar with it. Ogg, through the years, has certainly shown a commitment to justice here, even dismissing dozens of Goines’ cases for fear they were tainted by the officer’s involvement.
The dismissed indictments are undoubtedly a setback for the state’s case against Goines, but they don’t have to be a death blow. Prosecutors essentially have two options: appeal Nelson’s ruling, which would mire the case in appellate courts, possibly for years; or convince a grand jury to reindict Goines with the specificity that Nelson believed was missing in the original indictment. In the interest of expediency, we urge prosecutors to reindict Goines as soon as possible in order to meet the scheduled trial date in June.
The surviving members of the Tuttle and Nicholas families have exercised extraordinary patience waiting on a case that should have gone to trial years ago. They will now have to wait even longer because of what seems to us like an avoidable prosecutorial error. The DA owes it to them to ensure that there are no other procedural obstacles that can stand in the way of justice.
Ogg must rectify situation by seeking reindictment