A second Houston police officer has been charged with murder and is one of the additional officers who have been charged as part of an ongoing investigation into a narcotics unit by the Houston Police Department after a deadly drug raid of 2019, prosecutors announced Monday. In all, a dozen agents linked to the narcotics unit have been indicted after their work was scrutinized after the January 2019 drug raid in which Dennis Tuttle, 59, and the his wife, Rhogena Nicholas, 58.
“The consequences of corruption are that two innocent and normal people died at his home, four police officers were shot, one of them paralyzed and now all will face juries from Harris County who will decide their fate.” , said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. .
KHOU
Officer Felipe Gallegos was charged with murder on Tuttle’s death. If convicted, he faces life in prison, Ogg said.
Gallegos’ lawyer Rusty Hardin declined to comment on the case Monday.
Five more officers were charged Monday for their roles in an alleged plan to steal overtime pay as part of their job with the narcotics squad.
Three of the officers, Oscar Pardo, Cedell Lovings and Nadeem Ashraf, face first-degree offenses of having participated in organized criminal activities related to the theft of a public official and the manipulation of government records. They face life in prison if convicted.
Two other officers, Frank Medina and Griff Maxwell, face second-degree offenses for these same charges and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has it said a principal investigator lied in an affidavit justifying drug beating. Monday Acevedo issued a statement after the new charges were announced, saying the officer charged with murder on Monday “did not participate in obtaining the order and responded adequately to the deadly threat” presented during the raid.
Ogg said on Monday the grand jurors also charged three retired officers who had been charged last year with 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 activities related to the theft of a public official and the manipulation of government records. The third retired officer – Hodgie Armstrong – was charged with second-degree offenses for those same charges.
Two former members of the unit – Gerald Goines and Steven Bryant – had previously been charged in a state and federal court in the case, including two felony murder charges filed in state court against Goines. Another ex-officer, Lieutenant Robert Gonzales, was charged last year.
Prosecutors alleged that their investigation found that the accused officers were part of a unit that falsified drug payment documentation to confidential informants, routinely used false information to obtain search warrants and lied in police reports.
Prosecutors have accused Goines of lying to get the search warrant for Tuttle and Nicholas’ home. Goines claimed a confidential informant had bought heroin at his home. But the informant told investigators that no purchase of such drugs ever took place, authorities reported. Police found small amounts of marijuana and cocaine in the house, but no heroin.
When officers entered the home using a “do not touch” order that did not force them to announce themselves before entering, they were shot. Tuttle and Nicholas’ friends say they were not criminals and have suggested the couple may have thought they were being attacked by intruders.
Five officers, including Goines, were injured during the raid.
In a statement Monday, Houston police chief Art Acevedo blamed Goines and Bryant for the poor search warrant and said other officers, including Gallegos, “responded adequately to the deadly threat that ‘ ls presented during the service (of the order) “.
A spokesman for the Houston Police Officers Union did not return a search message Monday immediately. The union has previously described the allegations against former officials of a Ogg political ploy.
Lawyers for Tuttle and Nicholas family members have conducted their own investigation of the raid and have been fighting the city and police department in court for requests for documents and depositions of civil servants. agency.
“These latest allegations confirm some of the findings of the independent investigation of the families and, once again, raise two questions: to what extent the corruption of (the narcotics squad) and why the city and (the police of Houston) have struggled so much, yet, to hide the basic facts about what happened before, during and after the murderous raid? ”Michael Doyle, one of the Nicholas family’s lawyers, said in a statement.
Since the raid, prosecutors have been reviewing thousands of cases handled by the narcotics unit.
More than 160 drug convictions linked to Goines have been dismissed by prosecutors.
A public audit in July of the narcotics unit showed that officers were often not thorough in their investigations and that informants paid too much for the confiscation of tiny amounts of drugs.