The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has charged six former Houston police officers for their part in a botched narcotics raid that killed Houston couple, Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle.
Although the investigation is ongoing, district attorney Kim Ogg announced during a briefing on Wednesday; warrants were issued for six former Houston officers, including sergeants Clemente Reyna and Thomas Wood, lieutenant Robert Gonzales and senior officer Hodgie Armstrong. Former officers Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant picked up additional charges. The men were previously charged with tampering with government records for their part in the January 28, 2019 “no-knock” search warrant on a home located in the 7800 block of Harding Street. However, only Goines was charged with felony murder.
According to ABC 13, prosecutors allege five of the six involved, falsified government documents pertaining to narcotics investigations. Other allegations include falsifying information to persuade judges to sign search warrants, forging timesheets, putting misleading information in offense reports, and fabricating government documents to steal.
“Goines and others could never have preyed on our community the way they did without the participation of their supervisors; every check and balance in place to stop this type of behavior was circumvented,” Ogg said. “This was graft and greed at every step in the process, and prosecutors are making their way through the evidence one incident at a time.”
“The new charges show a pattern and practice of lying and deceit,” Ogg added. “There are mountains more evidence to review, and more charges are likely as we push into the next phase of our investigation.”
The investigation revealed supervisors lied about signing records claiming they saw street-level officers pay money to informants for the purchases of drugs, when they were not actually there, prosecutors stated.
“This investigation is peeling back layers of a narcotics-enforcement system gone awry,” Ogg said. “It calls into question the way HPD has been enforcing narcotics laws, especially in communities of color. The lion’s share of arrests made by this squad were minority men for low-level drug crimes.”
The case was filed with the court on Wednesday and will be heard in front of a Harris County grand jury. Prosecutors will take time to review cases to ensure that defendants were not wrongfully convicted in cases involving the officers.
Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a statement, “The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has not briefed the police department on the charges recently announced against former HPD employees who separated from the department more than a year ago. We have cooperated fully throughout the investigative process and will continue to do so.”
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