Six more under investigation in Harding Street drug raid
Harris County prosecutors have informed six current and former Houston drug cops they are targets of investigation, widening a probe stemming from a deadly narcotics raid nearly two years ago.
Current officers Frank Medina, Oscar Pardo, Nadeem Ashraf, Felipe Gallegos and retired officers Griff Maxwell and Cedelle Lovings received the letters, representatives for the men confirmed. All six men are or were members of the Houston Police Department Narcotics Division.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg was not available for comment Thursday afternoon.
The widened investigation is the latest development following the January 2019 raid of 7815 Harding St., which led to the deaths of homeowners Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58. Five members of Narcotics Squad 15 were also injured in the raid: Sgts. Thomas Wood and Clemente Reyna, and officers Gerald Goines, Frank Medina and Lovings, who was paralyzed in the operation.
In the days after the operation, police announced that 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 Harris County District Attorney’s Office
of cases that Goines and his colleagues had handled.
Goines was later charged with murder, tampering with government records, and violating Nicholas and Tuttle’s civil rights. His partner, Steven Bryant, was charged with tampering with government records. Both men retired from the department.
150 cases in doubt
So far, prosecutors have identified more than 150 convictions they believe may need to be overturned. Three defendants have had convictions overturned. Lawyers for relatives of the slain couple have also signaled their intent to sue the officers and the city.
As the scandal widened, Ogg announced in July that a grand jury had indicted Goines, Bryant and two sergeants, a narcotics lieutenant and one of Goines’ old partners, Hodgie Armstrong, for overtime theft and records tampering.
At the time, Ogg described the officers’ behavior to “straight-up graft,” which she said “can literally rot an institution from the inside out.”
Court documents filed in those cases show investigators used cell phone records to try to show that officers and their supervisors were lying when they said they were together for operations such as confidential informant payments — but weren’t actually present.
Defense attorneys for the accused men have lambasted Ogg’s prosecutors for refusing to turn over critical evidence in the case, including an initial offense report prepared by DA investigators, and cellphone mapping.
Twice, judges have ordered prosecutors to turn over the information, but Ogg’s subordinates have appealed both orders.
In September, a district attorney investigator filed search warrant affidavits expanding the probe against several more Squad 15 team members.
Union responds
But union officials and lawyers for the accused men contend that the charges the DA has already filed could be easily explained by officers listing the location of their assignment detail versus where they actually performed the work.
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith said he was waiting to learn more from the DA’s Office about the latest letters before commenting on any new allegations or possible charges.
“I have full confidence in our officers at the Houston Police Department, especially the officers of our narcotics division,” he said. “I believe that issues brought forward — outside of Goines — are merely policy violations and the DA’s Office is overreaching by pursuing charges.”
Of the officers who received letters informing them they are now under investigation, Gallegos, Medina, Pardo, Lovings and Ashraf were all present during the Harding Street raid, according to records from the District Attorney’s Office.
Rusty Hardin, who is representing Gallegos, confirmed that his client received a letter notifying him that he is a target of the investigation specifically related to the shooting deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas.
“He got a target letter,” Hardin confirmed. “I never thought any sane prosecutor would think he was a target.”
An attorney for Nicholas’ relatives said they welcomed additional scrutiny of Squad 15 and the narcotics division.
“If the mayor and police chief will not end the twoyear cover-up of HPD’s murderous Harding Street raid, then perhaps county prosecutors can help do so,” said Mike Doyle, the attorney. “The family of Rhogena Nicholas welcomes a sweeping investigation of the corruption of HPD Narcotics Squad 15 and all who knew of its illicit activities before, during and after the raid. The Nicholas family will continue its quest for justice as long as it takes to find out what caused Rhogena to be murdered in her own home.”