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By Phil Helsel
The Houston District Attorney's Office announced that it was reviewing more than 1,400 cases covering the career of a city drug officer, at the center of issues surrounding a deadly drug raid on last month.
The FBI also announced the opening of an independent inquiry into the civil rights of the 28 January raid. A man and a woman from the house were killed and several policemen were shot. The Houston office said the investigation "concerned allegations that a search warrant obtained by Houston police officers was based on fabricated false information."
Houston officials have discovered as a result of the raid that an affidavit of the warrant appears to have included "significant lies or lies," said the city's police chief last week.
According to police documents, the warrant for the Harding Street home was justified by allegations that a trusted informant had purchased heroin in that location and seen a weapon. The investigators who were trying to find this informant had received two names from the narcotics officer Gerald Goines, who had been injured during the attack.
But the two informants denied having worked on the case or buying drugs at this address, and all the informants on the list of those who had worked for Goines denied having bought this place in Goines, and never bought from drug to the two people killed in the fire. raid, Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58 years old.
Harris County Attorney Kim Ogg announced Wednesday that her office has launched a review of more than 1,400 criminal cases spanning decades. Twenty-seven of these cases are still pending and pending, and the lawyers for these cases have been notified, Ogg's office said.
"Our duty is to ensure that justice is done in all cases," Ogg said in a statement. "Although the criminal investigation on the Goines officer is ongoing, we have an immediate deontological obligation to warn the defendants and their lawyers in the other cases of Goines to give them the opportunity to." 39 to independently consider possible defenses. "
Police said that when the police went to serve the warrant, they were hit by gunfire.
Goines was not charged with any crime. Houston police chief Art Acevedo said, "I am very confident that lawsuits will be filed against one or more officers," according to the Associated Press.
Goines has been serving the police for over 30 years, according to the AP. He was relieved of his duties, said Ogg's office.
Goines lawyer Nicole DeBorde told NBC News on Wednesday that he welcomed the investigation. She told KPRC, an affiliate member of NBC in Houston, that she believed Goines was "innocent of any crime".
"We welcome a thorough investigation of his work and his character.It is the responsibility of the prosecution in the light of community surveillance and partial leakage to the media", declared DeBorde to NBC.
Acevedo said on Wednesday that the department had changed its arrest warrants policy following the drug raid that resulted in the deaths of Tuttle and Nicholas. He added that applications will have to be approved by the police chief or a person designated by the chief.
"You have to keep this ability to do it in an emergency situation where you really have to use it," said Acevedo, pointing out that a hostage rescue situation would constitute the only way to do it. one of these cases.
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