Houston Police Sick and Tired

[bignflnut]

The 9-1-1 caller is getting strung up for her part in the unlawful killings.

And it wasn't just Officer Goines lying. The investigation of the Tuttle residence began with a 911 call -- supposedly from Rhogena Nicholas' mother -- saying the couple were doing drugs and had guns in the house.

But it wasn't someone's overly-concerned mother. It was actually a neighbor. This neighbor is now facing charges for her part in the tragedy.

Federal investigators said they believe they have the 911 caller who made false accusations that led to the botched raid of a Harding Street home, leaving two dead and two former officers looking at prison time.

Patricia Garcia, a 53-year-old woman, was picked up Wednesday morning from the house directly across the street from the scene of the deadly Jan. 8 raid. Garcia is alleged to have falsely stated her daughter was at the home located at 7815 Harding St. and that she believed there were guns and drugs inside of the residence.

This isn't the end of this debacle, but every new development says nothing good about the Houston PD's narcotics unit or the department's leadership. Chief Art Acovedo spoke out against these officers, but only after the original narrative -- the one Goines is charged with creating -- became impossible to defend.

[bignflnut]

So, this happened.
The Houston Texans are the NFL team in Houston, Houston,Houston. The Texan linebackers dressed up for Sunday night's win against the Patriots.
Wanna guess what they dressed up as?

A SWAT team.

Yeah, a little on the nose for this city.
A bit tone deaf. Maybe they're eyeing early retirement and criminal charges in 2020.

[bignflnut]

In the hearing for Goines, FBI special agent O'Neil Brown testified about more evidence found in Goines' official, but unmarked Houston Police Department car. From click2houston.com:

Brown’s testimony brought forward new revelations about the investigation into Goines’ alleged activities. He testified that Goines was involved in a sexual relationship with one of his confidential informants. This same confidential informant told investigators the drugs Goines said were purchased from 7815 Harding Street came from a different address — one unrelated to Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, Brown testified. Brown also said investigators discovered a stolen gun in Goines’ unmarked HPD unit and various illegal drugs, including cocaine, and ecstasy.

It appears former officer Goines had more illegal drugs and illegal guns in his car than the Tuttles had. They had only a small amount of marijuana, and a small amount of cocaine discovered in their modest home, where they had lived quiet lives for the last 20 years, since they had married.

[bignflnut]

Harris County District Judge Kelli Johnson last week declared Steven Mallet, who served 10 months in jail after he was arrested for selling crack cocaine in 2008, "actually innocent." Earlier this month, Harris County District Judge Ramona Franklin reached the same conclusion regarding Mallet's brother, Otis, who served two years for his alleged involvement in the same transaction.

Both men were arrested by Gerald Goines, the veteran narcotics officer who spearheaded the January 2019 drug raid that killed a middle-aged couple, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas, in their home on Harding Street. Goines invented a heroin purchase by a nonexistent confidential informant to justify that raid, which discovered no evidence of drug dealing.

In response to the false testimony identified in the cases against the Mallet brothers, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has more than doubled the time period covered by her re-examination of cases involving Goines and other officers in Squad 15 of the Houston Police Department's Narcotics Division. "Because of the revelations involving the Harding Street raid, District Attorney Ogg initiated a review of 14,000 cases that Goines and his squad worked over the last five years," a press release from Ogg's office says. "With the Mallet cases now being revealed, that review is stretching further back, to 2008."

If the squad handled 14,000 cases in five years, the total number of potentially questionable cases since 2008 is probably something like 30,000, and it's by no means clear that misconduct by narcotics officers began that year. "The sheer number of the cases that could be involved is daunting," Ogg said. "Even though it is challenging, our mandate is to always and continually seek justice."