A second Houston police officer is charged with murder and is among additional officers charged as part of an ongoing investigation into a narcotics unit in Houston police. deadly drug attack in 2019, prosecutors announced Monday. In all, a dozen officers linked to the drug unit were charged after their work was scrutinized after the January 2019 drug attack in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed.
“The consequences of corruption are that two innocent people were killed in their homes, four police officers were shot, one of them was paralyzed and now everyone will face Harris County judges who will decide their fate,” Kim Ogg said. , Harris County District Attorney, said. .
KHOU
Officer Felipe Gallegos was executed for murder in Tuttle’s death. If convicted, he should face life in prison, Ogg said.
Rusty Hardin, a lawyer from Gallegos, declined to comment on Monday.
Five other officers were charged Monday with their role in an alleged plan to steal overtime pay as part of their work with the drug group.
Three of the officers – Oscar Pardo, Cedell Lovings and Nadeem Ashraf – are facing charges of first-class crime for engaging in organized criminal activity related to the theft of a civil servant and tampering with a government record. They will be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Two other officers – Frank Medina and Griff Maxwell – face second-degree offenses on the same charges and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has lied to a chief investigator in an affidavit justifying the drug attack. On Monday Acevedo a statement released after the new charges were announced, the officer charged Monday with murder said “was not involved in obtaining the warrant and responded appropriately to the deadly threat” that occurred during the raid.
Ogg said major jurors on Monday also charged three retired officers charged last year on various charges related to the case. Two of these officers – Clemente Reyna and Thomas Wood – were charged with first-degree offenses for engaging in organized criminal activity related to the theft of a government official and with a government record. The third retired officer – Hodgie Armstrong – is charged with second-degree crimes in the same degree.
Two former members of the unit – Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant – were earlier charged in state and federal court, including two counts of murder filed in state court against Goines. Another former officer, Lieutenant Robert Gonzales, was charged last year.
Prosecutors allege their investigation revealed that the accused officers were part of a unit that falsified documentation on drug payments to confidential informants, regularly used false information to obtain warrants and lied in police reports.
Prosecutors have accused Goines of lying to get the warrant to search Tuttle and Nicholas’ home. Goines claims a confidential informant bought heroin at home. But the informant told investigators that such a drug purchase never took place, authorities said. Police found small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the home, but no heroin.
When officers entered the house with a warrant without beating that did not require them to announce themselves before entering, they were charged with gunfire. Friends of Tuttle and Nicholas say they were not criminals and suggested the couple thought they were being attacked by intruders.
Five officers, including Goines, were injured during the raid.
In a statement, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo blamed the erroneous investigation order on Goines and Bryant, saying the other officers, including Gallegos, “responded appropriately to the deadly threat they posed during the service (the warrant). “
A spokesman for the Houston Police Officers’ Union did not immediately send an email Monday for comment. The union had earlier called the charges against the former officers a political ploy by Ogg.
Attorneys for family members of Tuttle and Nicholas conducted their own investigation into the raid and struggled in court with the city and police department over requests for documents and evictions from officials.
“These latest allegations confirm some of the findings from the families’ independent investigation, and raise two questions: how high is the corruption of (the drug group) and why did the city and (Houston police) fight so hard,” still, to hide the basic facts about what happened before, during and after the assassination attempt? ‘Michael Doyle, one of the Nicholas family’s lawyers, said in a statement.
Prosecutors have reviewed thousands of cases handled by the drug unit since the raid.
More than 160 drug convictions linked to Goines have been dismissed by prosecutors.
An audit released in July on the narcotics unit found that officers often did not investigate thoroughly and paid informants too much for the seizure of small quantities of drugs.