Former HPD officer charged with murder in botched raid
Partner accused of evidence tampering; DA’s probe continues
A former Houston Police Department narcotics officer has been charged with murder, nearly seven months after a botched drug raid left a couple dead and unleashed a sprawling police scandal.
Ex-case agent Gerald Goines on Friday was charged with two counts of felony murder in the Jan. 28 deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas and is still under investigation over claims he stole guns, drugs and money, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced at a news conference downtown. His partner, Steven Bryant, was charged with one count of evidence tampering, a state jail felony.
“We have not seen a case like this in Houston,” Ogg said. “I have not seen a case like this in my 30-plus years of practicing law.”
Ogg said that as investigators probed the case, they determined that Goines first lied about using a confidential informant to buy heroin; then claimed to have bought the drugs himself; then lied about who identified the drugs; and finally admitted that he couldn’t determine whether Tuttle was the same person from whom he allegedly purchased the drugs.
Ogg also said that after the shooting, Bryant lied in an offense report about helping Goines with the investigation and falsely claimed that they’d recovered a plastic bag that contained a white napkin and two small packets of heroin.
Because the deaths occurred in the course of another alleged felony — tampering with a government record — Goines was charged with felony murder.
Unlike a regular murder charge, felony murder doesn’t require showing that the defendant intended to kill. Instead, prosecutors just have to show that, while committing another felony, the defendant committed an act clearly dangerous
to human life — in this case, the execution of a no-knock warrant — and that it resulted in a death.
The two former officers both turned themselves in Friday in court, where a judge set Goines’ bond at $300,000 and Bryant’s at $50,000. Aside from the arrests, prosecutors said they are conducting a broader investigation into the squad and a review of more than 14,000 cases.
Relatives and attorneys for the slain couple welcomed news of the charges.
“We see these indictments as an important first step in our pursuit of justice,” said John Nicholas, whose sister was killed in the raid, “but this investigation must continue, so we can learn what went wrong at the Houston Police Department to allow this tragedy to happen.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at HPD headquarters, a defiant Chief Art Acevedo admitted Goines and Bryant had “dishonored” the badge and the department, but defended the other officers on Squad 15, who he said had acted in “good faith” before being shot.
“Mr. Tuttle shot at them,” he said. “Nothing in the evidence shows he did not shoot these officers.”
Though police gave full records to Ogg’s office only under threat of subpoenas, Acevedo still touted Friday’s charges as proof that his department could investigate itself.
Nicole DeBorde — the defense attorney representing Goines — questioned the allegations against her client.
“We’ve made many offers to continue cooperating but not a person has reached out to us for anything,” she said. “We can’t wait to see the information that she’s talking about.”
In an emailed statement, Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi said he was pleased the DA’s office “appears to concur” with the conclusions reached by the HPD investigation that no other officers were involved in any criminal activity relating to the execution of the warrant or the shooting, and declined further comment.
Drug raid went awry
Prosecutors on Friday left open the possibility of additional charges, however.
“A Harris County grand jury will shortly begin to review all evidence in the case,” Ogg said. “To determine if further charges are warranted against Goines or Bryant, if they’re authorized against any other officers, and to review any extraneous claims that have come into our office directly.”
On Jan. 28, Houston narcotics officers burst into the house at 7815 Harding St. looking for heroin.
The raid went awry almost immediately, with gunfire erupting moments after an undercover narcotics team broke down the door. Tuttle and Nicholas were killed and five officers were injured. Four of the five were shot, including Goines. One officer remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Police said they were looking for heroin dealers, but the raid turned up only small, user-level amounts of cocaine and marijuana. In the days that followed, an internal investigation sparked questions about the officers’ justification for the search warrant. Though a sworn affidavit — signed by Goines — recounted a controlled buy made by a confidential informant, police quickly realized they could not verify that claim or find the alleged informant.
Two months after the raid, Goines and Bryant both retired under investigation.
As police and prosecutors spent months probing the officers and their squad, the FBI opened a civil rights investigation. In July, several police officers tied to the raid testified before a federal grand jury, a sign of possible pending federal charges.
As the investigation progressed quietly, attorneys for the slain couple started raising more questions about what happened. An independent forensics expert combed through the couple’s home in May and found no evidence that they’d fired toward police, but noted the presence of two bullet holes inside the home and claimed evidence showed officers fired fatal shots from outside the home and through a wall.
Sam Walker, an expert on police accountability at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, called Ogg’s decision to charge the officers “unusual.”
“How often are officers charged with murder?” he said. “It’s a positive step. … It appears they’re getting serious about that kind of misconduct.”
Goines and Bryant arrived in Harris County 228th District Court to turn themselves in a few hours after charges were announced.
Their defense attorneys said the charges had caught them “flatfooted.”
GPS monitors ordered
Goines, who wore a sports coat and a white dress shirt, declined to speak to reporters, and sat on a courtroom bench with his head bowed.
Judge Frank Aguilar ordered Goines’ bond set at $150,000 per murder charge, significantly higher than the $50,000 bond that his attorney requested.
Assistant District Attorney David Mitcham had argued for the higher amount, noting Goines owns a truck valued at $80,000, a $30,000 motorcycle and has access to a large cash payment he collected from his police retirement fund.
“He has both the means and motivation for flight,” said Mitcham.
Aguilar later set a $50,000 bond for Bryant on his charge of tampering with a government record.
Both ex-officers were also required to surrender their passports, barred from possessing firearms or non-prescription drugs, and ordered to wear GPS monitors and undergo drug testing. The judge also ordered both Goines and Bryant not to work as peace officers or security guards, not to contact confidential informants or officers who took part in the Harding Street raid, and to adhere to a strict curfew.
“We recognize the community has been violated,” Ogg said, “and I want to assure my fellow Houstonians and residents of Harris County we are getting to the truth. You’ve heard chapter one. Each day we uncover more, and with each fact we work towards doing justice.”