Indictment in deadly raid is a ‘violation’
Lawyer for HPD cop blasts Ogg on new murder charge
Felipe Gallegos watched fellow officers swarm into 7815 Harding St., then heard shots and yelling.
One officer screamed he’d been hit, Gallegos’ attorney said. Then another was hit. They began backing out of the ramshackle Pecan Park home, and Gallegos saw Officer Cedell Lovings fall to the ground, blood spilling from his neck. Gerald Goines, the squad leader, came out that January day two years ago, skin hanging from his face, where he’d taken a bullet to the jaw.
Gallegos saw a man at the doorway, revolver raised, firing again, his lawyers said. He had to make a decision. His attorney, Rusty Hardin, said Gallegos then aimed and fired, killing Dennis Tuttle.
The day after a Harris County grand jury indicted the 12-year HPD veteran on murder charges — and eight other police officers on organized crime charges — Hardin accused
District Attorney Kim Ogg of waging an irresponsible, politically motivated prosecution.
“You’ve got to quit this,” Hardin said, referring to Ogg, Tuesday in downtown Houston, flanked on one side by five attorneys working the case, and on the other by Gallegos and his wife, parents, and sister. “This is a violation of how the criminal justice system ought to work.”
The hourlong news conference in the Hilton-Americas was something of a rarity: Since the Jan. 28, 2019 drug raid, the Houston Police Department has resisted releasing information about the operation, including the names of officers involved, and none of the officers have made public appearances outside of the courtroom.
Hours after Hardin’s appearance, Ogg remained unswayed.
“Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas were shot to death by a squad of narcotics cops engaged in a long-running overtime theft scheme,” she said, in an emailed statement. “A grand jury made of up ordinary citizens determined that Officer Felipe Gallegos is not in fact a hero, but a murderer, just like a different grand jury did, when they indicted former Officer Gerald Goines for the Felony Murder of both victims. With two police officers now charged with murder, Houstonians are finally getting the truth about what really happened on Harding Street.”
On Tuesday, prosecutors declined to reveal additional information about the sequence of events they believe played out in the Harding Street raid, saying those details will be revealed at trial.
It has been almost two years since the Harding Street raid, when Squad 15 narcotics officers, using a no-knock warrant, burst into Tuttle’s home looking for drugs. Gunfire erupted, ending
with the deaths of Tuttle and his wife Rhogena Nicholas, and four officers shot. After the raid, police investigators announced that Goines was under investigation for lying about buying drugs from the home.
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. More than a year after the raid, Ogg announced that a grand jury had indicted two of Goines’ supervisors and another former partner with crimes related to tampering and lying about working
overtime.
Narcotics Lt. Robert Gonzales was also charged with misapplication of fiduciary responsibility, for failing to properly supervise use of the narcotics division’s confidential informant funds.
All together, 12 current and former police officers have been charged in connection to the raid and ensuing investigation.
Hardin, a well-known defense attorney, responded to the new charges by attacking Ogg’s prosecution — and providing new details about one of the officers implicated in one of the worst scandals to hit the department in decades. He argued that while Goines is accused of lying about the raid, Gallegos and other officers were unaware of his deception — and acted
appropriately when they came under fire.
“Once Mr. Tuttle started shooting, he was not innocent,” Hardin said. “Felipe was a hero. He saved lives in a situation in which four different police officers were shot.”
He also criticized the grand jury’s “unconscionable” decision not to hear testimony from Gallegos, who he said had wanted to testify, even against the advice of Hardin and other defense attorneys.
Chief Art Acevedo said Monday that he believed that Gallegos acted appropriately.
Hardin — who said he met Gallegos through his son, who is also a Houston police officer — said the Harding Street raid was supposed to have been Gallegos’ last as a narcotics officer before he transferred to the SWAT team, his longtime dream.
Gallegos, a muscular man with short cropped black hair, spoke little during the news conference.
“It’s been very challenging just because I haven’t been awarded the opportunity to tell my side of the story,” he said, in brief remarks, “to be able to explain that I’m not the bad person that I’m being painted to be. … It’s been challenging my entire family. And my kids. There’s not a better way to explain it.”
His wife, Cynthia, said Gallegos had continued to go to work even after the birth of their son. Gallegos wanted to be ready to report to SWAT.
“The day that he was supposed to say goodbye to the guys, and let it be the last day, is the day that our lives changed forever,” she said.
At a press conference at Houston Police Officers’ Union headquarters shortly after Hardin’s, union President Douglas Griffith also pushed back against Ogg’s prosecution, saying most of the charges she has pursued were related to “irregularities in overtime slips,” which could easily be explained.
“This is a stretch by this DA,” he said. “She has overreached, overstepped, and our officers will be proven innocent at the end of the day.”
Attorney Mike Doyle, who represents the Nicholas family, questioned how Hardin’s comments would play out in court.
“Time will tell if Mr. Hardin’s explanation holds up to the evolving ballistics evidence from our independent investigation and that of the official investigation,” he said, late Tuesday. “We expect his version of events will be challenged and soon.”
Prosecutors initially asked for a $150,000 bail, records show. On Tuesday, at Hardin’s request, a judge reduced that amount to $50,000 and Gallegos is now free on bond.