Lucio Vasquez / Houston Public Media
The Harris County District Lawyer’s Workplace on Thursday moved to dismiss 17 expenses in opposition to eight former Houston Police Division officers — some concerned within the botched 2019 Harding Road raid — for instances associated to an alleged extra time pay scheme.
In a press release Thursday, District Lawyer Sean Teare stated the choice was made after a radical overview of the info “clearly demonstrated that there was inadequate proof to show that any of those crimes have been dedicated past an affordable doubt.”
“Because the chief regulation enforcement officer of Harris County, I need individuals to know that we stay steadfast in our dedication to uncovering and addressing corruption wherever it could be found- however we are going to all the time be guided by the info, not politics,” Teare stated.
The dismissals come months after a Harris County grand jury moved to re-indict the officers for the scheme to obtain unearned extra time pay starting from $30,000 as much as $150,000 from town, in line with courtroom information.
Costs have been initially filed in opposition to Felipe Gallegos, Frank Medina, Oscar Pardo, Nadeem Ashraf, Griff Maxwell, Clemente Reyna, Thomas Wooden, Cedell Lovings and Hodgie Armstrong in 2021 for the alleged pay scheme. Costs have been then dropped in June final yr earlier than the previous officers have been once more indicted by a grand jury on the costs 4 months later.
Absent from the re-indictment expenses in October was Lovings, who was left paralyzed following the lethal raid and initially charged alongside the eight different officers till his case was dropped in June.
Paperwork reflecting the latest dismissals weren’t instantly out there on the Harris County District Clerk’s Workplace web site Thursday.
RELATED: Harding Road raid: Ex-Houston cops reindicted for alleged extra time scheme
Teare stated that nothing in regards to the dismissals modifications the truth that the botched drug raid ought to have by no means occurred.
“These expenses have been saved on life-support by the earlier District Lawyer to generate headlines, damaging the reputations of the officers and the Houston Police Division, they usually inevitably fell aside below the load of the reality,” Teare stated.
In a press release to Houston Public Media Thursday, former District Lawyer Kim Ogg decried the dismissals.
“This sample of dismissing corruption instances with out letting a Harris County jury hear the info is shaping as much as be an epic failure in public accountability, courtesy of the brand new DA, Sean Teare,” Ogg stated.
On Jan. 28, 2019, officers concerned within the scheme executed a no-knock search warrant on the house of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. Photographs have been fired shortly after officers entered the home. The drug raid left the couple useless and a number of officers wounded.
An inner investigation within the wake of the incident discovered that former Houston cop Gerald Goines, who led the raid, fabricated a narrative a couple of confidential informant buying heroin from the couple’s residence in an effort to acquire the no-knock warrant. Investigators discovered no heroin within the residence throughout the raid. The investigation led to a number of expenses being filed in opposition to Goines and different officers concerned within the raid.
The capturing additionally prompted relations of Tuttle and Nicholas to file a pair of civil lawsuits in opposition to town, then-police chief Artwork Acevedo and 13 cops. Goines additionally was sued final yr by a person who claimed he was falsely convicted of drug possession due to dishonest statements made by Goines.
In 2024, the homicide expenses in opposition to Goines have been dropped after his attorneys argued they have been non-specific and didn’t present a “significant alternative to current an entire protection.” A few week later, he was re-indicted.
“A Harris County jury sentenced former HPD Officer Gerald Goines to 60 years in jail and a $10k nice for the murders of Dennis Tuttle and Regina Nichols,” Ogg stated Thursday. “A grand jury indicted ten of Goines’ fellow narcotics squad members who really killed the couple throughout the botched drug raid for associated police corruption crimes, all of which have been dismissed as we speak.”
Hai Bui, founding father of Houston-based activist group We the Individuals Manage, on Thursday referred to as the dismissals deeply disappointing.
“Now, with the costs as soon as once more dismissed, we consider politics have performed a job,” Bui stated. “It seems that HPD and the Houston Police Officers’ Union have a ‘go alongside, get alongside’ district lawyer— one who refused to problem the police and maintain them accountable.”
