HOUSTON, Texas – Gerald Goines, the former Houston Police Department narcotics officer who led the deadly Harding Street raid that left a couple and their dog dead, will finally face a jury next week.
Goines is currently charged with felony murder in connection to the deaths of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas. The couple and their dog were killed in January 2019 when Goines and other narcotics officers raided their Harding Street home with a “no-knock warrant” and in plain clothing.
Goines is accused of providing false information to obtain the “no-knock warrant” used in the raid.
Goines also faces two counts of depriving Tuttle and Nicholas of their constitutional right to be secure against unreasonable searches and obstructing justice by falsifying records by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.
“When a cop is the defendant everything is a little bit different. We as people make assumptions and generalizations based on what people do and how they look and when juries come in and they know that somebody is a police officer, sometimes they give them the benefit of the doubt. However, on the other hand, they also have expectations of that individual that sometimes rise higher than the regular common man,” said criminal defense attorney Angela Weltin.
After more than five years, Goines will be tried by a jury at the state level. There’s no word when he will face a judge or jury on the felony level.
So, how exactly will things play out in court for Goines? KPRC 2 Investigates Reporter Mario Diaz spoke with four criminal attorneys with different takes on what to expect next week.
“Most people just don’t have lukewarm feelings about the police. They are either thin blue line, back the blue or they are just anti-police or we are over-policed kind of deal. So, you could maybe have that divide in a jury room and that can cause problems where you have people who are going to give him the benefit of the doubt because he is a police officer and people aren’t going to be like him because he is a police officer, so that could cause a rift inside the jury room.”
The Tuttle and Nicholas families have long awaited justice for the death of their loved ones, but seeing Goines in court battling state-level charges almost never happened.
In March, Goines had two felony murder indictments quashed by Judge Veronica Nelson.
Goines’ attorneys filed a motion asking Judge Nelson to drop the indictments, arguing they lacked specific details regarding the laws he violated that resulted in the felony murder charges. The motion pointed out that although the indictment mentioned a charge of tampering with a government record, it did not specify which of the six tampering statute subsections Goines was accused of violating.
“It creates a whole distrust for law enforcement. It’s difficult because, if you are prosecutor it’s difficult because you work with law enforcement on a daily basis, now all of a sudden here you are having to prosecute your partner,” said criminal defense attorney Casey Gonzalez.
At the time of the judge’s ruling to quash Goines’ charges, Kim Ogg said it was “another delay tactic by the defense,” and promised to explore all options, which included appealing the judge’s decision or turning to a grand jury for re-indictment.
“I do think when the defendant is a law enforcement officer, as soon as the indictment is read to the jury, one of two things occurs, the potential juror either determines they think it’s political and this is unfair and they entrench a little bit for the defendant or they pull back and treat them even more harshly than they would a standard defendant in those shoes,” said criminal defense attorney Erin Epley.
A week later, Goines was re-indicted on the two felony murder charges after a grand jury signed off on the re-indictments.
Who else was charged?
Along with Goines, 11 other HPD officers were charged in connection to the deadly Harding Street Raid.
Most of the officers who were charged were accused of overtime theft.
Goines’ former partner, Steven Bryant, was charged with tampering with a government record and theft by a public servant. He was also charged by federal prosecutors with falsifying records in a federal investigation. Bryant retired from the department in 2019 and pleaded guilty to his charges in 2021. He was set to be sentenced in 2022, but has since turned into a state witness so it’s not clear when he will be sentenced.
In June, a judge quashed the “organized criminal activity” indictments for nine of the 12 officers charged, citing the indictments being overly vague. Some of them still face tampering with governmental records and theft charges.
The nine former officers include Hodgie Armstrong, Nadeem Ashraf, Felipe Gallegos, Cedell Lovings, Griff Maxwell, Frank Medina, Oscar Pardo, Clemente Reyna and Thomas Wood.