Families of Harding Street victims sue city, police officers.
Federal lawsuits filed in Harding Street raid name the city, current and former officers
Two years after police officers stormed into a home in southeast Houston, the relatives of the couple killed in the raid filed long-anticipated lawsuits against the city and police officers involved.
Lawyers argued that more than a dozen current and former officers violated the civil rights of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas by using excessive, deadly force in a fraudulent police action. And they accused city officials of continuing to stonewall efforts to obtain information.
“After two years of fighting, there's still some very basic questions that can and should be answered,” said attorney Mike Doyle, who is representing Nicholas’ relatives. The suits detailed accusations of police misconduct before, during and after the raid, but the facts about what happened in the moments in which two people were killed and four wounded remain murky. Most of the allegations repeat information in criminal charges filed by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg and Houston Chronicle stories that first detailed reports of police misconduct.
The federal lawsuits come on the second anniversary of the Jan. 28, 2019, drug raid, in which officers from HPD’s Squad 15, a group of street level drug cops, executed a no-knock warrant on Tuttle’s home at 7815 Harding St.
Gunfire ensued, leading to the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas and injuries to four officers. In the aftermath of the operation, police investigators determined that Gerald Goines, the officer who led the raid, lied about buying drugs from a man at Tuttle’s home.
So far, 12 current and former officers have been indicted with crimes stemming from the investigation into the raid. Two men, Goines and Felipe Gallegos, are charged with murder. Eleven current and former officers have been charged with crimes such as tampering with government records or lying to pad their overtime earnings.
Prosecutors said they believed as many as 150 of Goines’ cases might need to be overturned — and three people have seen their
convictions reversed.
After Gallegos was indicted earlier this week, his attorney described him as a “hero” and said the squad of officers had not known Goines had lied to obtain the warrant they were executing.
Doyle argued that the city of Houston and Houston police officers used “excessive, deadly force,” violating Tuttle and Nicholas’ constitutional rights, in a pattern of misconduct that “plays out like a scene from ‘Training Day.’ ”
Mayor Sylvester Turner defended the city’s police, saying the majority of HPD’s 5,300 officers do an “outstanding” job, and said the lawsuit would have to run its course.
“You cannot tarnish, you cannot stain the entire force — of any organization — because of the acts of the few,” he said. “I’m very proud of the men and women of HPD.”
Acevedo declined to comment, citing the pending court fight. Houston Police Officers’ Union President Douglas Griffith questioned the timing of the lawsuit, which came days after Ogg announced indictments against several of the officers tied to the raid.
“It seems almost like it was planned,” he said.
At a Thursday morning news conference just east of downtown at the Talento Bilingue De Houston, Nicholas’ brother said the ordeal has taken a toll on his aging mother.
“Chief Acevedo keeps saying we had a reason to be there. It's taken you two years to find that reason? My mother would like to know,” he said. “We won't quit til we get answers. If we get an answer in one day, or 10 years from now, my mother said she will live til she gets the answers.”
Doyle said the litigation came after two years of efforts by the family to get information about the raid, but police officials didn’t answer basic questions, blocked records requests, and fought other efforts (such as hearings in probate court) to obtain additional details.
“I don't think anybody feels uncomfortable calling it at this point a cover-up,” he said, “Chief Art Acevedo today could release this ballistics information. He could release the facts, the physical evidence. He can do it today. And if he won't do it, the mayor could do it.”