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Houston – The Houston police chief said that a chief investigator had lied in an affidavit justifying a drug raid in a house that had ended with Two residents killed and four officers injured in a shooting. The agent should face charges.
Chief Art Acevedo said at a press conference Friday that the investigator had falsely asserted in the affidavit, which had been leaked to the media, that a confidential informant had obtained the Heroine at home. Police records indicate that heroin was obtained elsewhere.
Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58, were killed.
The investigator was one of the officers shot and wounded in the shooting on 28 January. He remained hospitalized on Friday. Officials said he had been working for the ministry for over 30 years.
In the hours following the deadly raid, Acevedo commended the investigator for being "badass," but he said on Friday that there was "a strong chance that he would not be able to". a criminal charge is laid ".
After the raid, police said they found several guns at home, as well as marijuana and cocaine, but no heroin. Acevedo insisted on Friday that investigators had reason to investigate the house and were not "willy-nilly". Authorities still believe that Tuttle and Nicholas were involved in criminal activities, but Acevedo said the case was now compromised.
He stated that lying in an affidavit under oath was "totally unacceptable".
"From the first day, when I joined this department, I told my people that if you lied, you would die," Acevedo said.
The disclosed affidavit – which had been sealed under a court order – revealed that when the police began to examine the investigator's account, he began to crumble . Still hospitalized for a gunshot wound, the investigator wrote the name of the confidential informant of another officer charged with investigating issues relating to the drug raid.
When Houston police contacted the informant, he said that he had previously collaborated with the investigator in the narcotics business, but not the one that had led to the deadly shooting. The informant also stated that the investigator had paid him in the past even though he was not working.
KHOU
The police then returned to the investigator, who gave him the name of another confidential informant. When the police contacted the second informant, he said that the investigator had asked him to buy the drug, but to another place. According to the affidavit, the informant did not recognize the place where the deadly raid took place nor the two residents who were killed. The police then contacted all confidential informants who had worked with the investigator and all stated that they had never purchased drugs from Tuttle or Nicholas, according to the affidavit.
Acevedo said on Friday that the authorities need to determine whether any other cases involving the policeman could be jeopardized on the basis of his actions and committed to "reporting good, bad and ugly".
"We owe it to the killed suspects, we owe it to the policemen who were killed and who have full confidence in this affidavit – the one who is still in the hospital with a very serious bullet wound – and we owe it to the community and the good workers of the Houston Police Department to ensure that we not only see what we had in front of us, but also to have a very wide net, "said Acevedo.
The agent was suspended, as was another agent involved in the raid that had already been suspended.
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