Audit criticizes Houston police unit tied to fatal drug raid

HOUSTON — An audit of a Houston Police Department narcotics unit that’s been under scrutiny following a deadly 2019 drug raid found that officers made hundreds of errors in cases, often weren’t thorough in their investigations, lacked supervision and overpaid informants for the seizure of minuscule amounts of drugs.

A group of state lawmakers who had been fighting for months for the audit’s release criticized the report, calling it a “scam” for not detailing the systematic problems within the unit and the police department that ultimately led to the January 2019 drug raid in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed.

“This was not a single rogue officer. This was not even a single rogue unit. This was an entire rogue division. This is an entire branch of the Houston police department that just did whatever it felt like doing,” state Rep. Gene Wu said Friday.

A Houston police spokesman said Chief Art Acevedo and the department were not expected to comment on the audit.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Thursday the audit looked at the narcotics unit with a “very critical eye" and Houston police have since “stepped up and already made a number of revisions."

The 66-page audit reviewed the work of two former members of the narcotics unit — Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant —along with the work of squads within the unit. Goines and Bryant have previously been charged in state and federal court in the case, including two counts of felony murder filed in state court against Goines for the deaths of the couple.

The audit found more than 400 errors in cases from the three years leading up to the raid that were handled by Goines and Bryant.

Some of the errors the audit tied to Goines included not getting approval for informant payments, missing documentation regarding the payment of informants and overpaying informants.