A Coordinated screw up followed by a coordinated coverup. With a side order of stealing public funds. Families of Slain Couple Sue Houston Drug Squad
Let's start with the result.
Numerous officers have been indicted after Houston police shot and killed a married couple while conducting a drug raid based on a bogus warrant.
Not only are some of the cops facing charges, but now there are two federal law suits.
On the day in question, a cop bursts through the door, and shoots a dog with a shotgun. At the sound of the firearm, all the cops open up, most shooting blindly through windows and walls. That was even though at that point no one, except cops, had done anything. Wrong or right, they had not done anything. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Two innocent people ended up dead.
But let's back up and talk about the warrant...
First, the cop behind the warrant, Gerald Goines, lied to get the warrant.
Though the officers observed no criminal activity, 20 days later the narcotics unit’s leader Gerald Goines signed an affidavit falsely claiming he had witnessed a confidential informant buy heroin from a man at the house, and the informant had told him the man had a bunch of heroin and a 9 mm handgun.
When he got caught in that lie, he doubled down with another lie, saying it wasn't a confidential informant, it was he who bought the heroin.
But the FBI determined he was nowhere near the home as he claimed to be on Jan. 27, 2019, and could not have made the purchase.
While all of that was coming out, the chief of police, Art Acevedo, decided to say that there was no way HIS cops would do anything wrong.
“Acevedo professed that he ‘stands with the members of Squad 15,’ who he ‘considers victims.’ Even worse, without any legitimate evidence or basis, Acevedo claimed ‘the facts are going to come out’ to show that HPD ‘had probable cause to be there,’” John Nicholas [one of the lawyers] says.
And searches of the house, and autopsies uncovered NO heroin, and no use of heroin by the 2 dead people. Who were Dennis Tuttle, 59, and Rhogena Nicholas, 58.
Then another of the other cops decided to keep digging, and deal with some paperwork "issues."
Goines, 56, has since been charged with two state felony murder charges and a federal civil rights charge, while Bryant, 47, is facing state and federal document tampering charges.
A total of 12 officers are under indictment, though mostly for "stealing overtime" which is under the heading of "organized criminal activity." Which I belive predates this particular raid, though it isn't clear from the linked article.
And two federal suits.
Two people are dead because cops believe that they can lie in the name of the War on (Some) Drugs™ and they stole from the public funds (extra overtime) because the Law doesn't apply to them.
I've been following this from the beginning and there are other questions too.
ReplyDeleteWhy THIS house? Why did the narc think attacking this particular house was a good idea? As far as I know, no one has ever offered a reason why he picked this house. What does it say about his mindset and sanity that he just picked a house at random?
How many of the other hundreds of arrests made by this cop and this team, many of truly bad guys, will be overturned because of questions raised by this murder? Just that calculation alone should be enough to overwhelm anyone who thinks the ends justify the means.
How in the hell do all the other cops not see any issues with any of this before hand? People talk. People are jealous. Cops had to know his methods were sketchy.
Houston has a history of issues with their crime lab too that are only now being resolved ('independent' lab now, reports to the city council, not the cops, with a different funding model).
Add in that Acevedo is a gun grabber at heart, and you've got a huge mess.
There are things he's done that I like. He's required a LOT more firearms training and testing for example. They do a lot of community outreach, running ride-alongs, a Citizens Police Academy, and various community based policing and coordinating efforts. Their manpower numbers are very low for a city the size of Houston (which is good). They won't ever mention it, but there are other agencies to pick up the policing slack, like the constables and the sheriff. I prefer to have contact with those other agencies instead of HPD, as they are much closer to the community.
Sorry, kinda disjointed. I could write a couple thousand words and only be getting started.
Any other readers in Houston, the HPD Citizen's Police Academy is taking applications for their next two classes which will start up in March.
https://www.houstontx.gov/police/vip/citizens_police_academy.htm
Anyone in a different area, I encourage you to check and see what CPA style classes are available in your area. It is VERY educational and absolutely worth the time. DEA and FBI run CPA classes too, but they are generally harder to get into.
n
They didn't pick the house at random. A neighbor - out of a dispute - call 911 and said her daughter was there doing crack and that they had a machine gun. A search - 20 days before he lied to get the warrant - discovered absolutely nothing. But Goines was convinced they must be guilty of something.
DeleteThat neighbor is facing charges about false 911 calls, but it isn't enough.
There are issues with some police. Defund the police is absolutely not the answer. This is a morality problem, not a policing problem. (I said to an organization years back, once you 'need' a code of ethics, you're probably too far gone). Back to Sir Robert Peels rules, anything else will eventually be a police state or anarchy. Good luck. js
ReplyDeleteThere is an issue with qualified immunity.
DeleteAfter the Civil War, Congress and the states passed a whole bunch of laws punishing cops for bad behavior done "under color of authority." In the 1960s SCOTUS started invalidating those laws, and by the late 70s or early 80s cops could not be held accountable for anything.
And so we got Jon Burge, and the Midnight Crew from Area 2 in Chicago. There is a reason that police torture conferences are held in Chicago. That was ground zero for a long time. And the Brass and Lawyers knew what was going on and didn't care.
We also go Rampart in LA, and Special Operations Sections in Chicago, and host of other examples. Look thru the archives (1.0 and 2.0) for more examples than I can list here.
Cops kill because we created a legal environment where they can, even when they don't need to. It is one thing to shoot someone in self defense. It is something completely different to lie to get a warrant, to set up a situation where if anyone sneezes they are going to be shot, to lie to cover up the lie, to say "My people are NEVER wrong" and to try fix "correct" the paperwork after the fact. All of which happened in this single incident.
Now that said, "defund the police" is stupid. But there are changes that need to be made. Starting with qualified immunity.
My understanding is the mother of the female victim basically set them up to the police because she detested both of them. Doxing them as it were. All the cops should be investigated and if they misused their power and authority they should be punished to the limits of the law.
ReplyDeleteCourse if they were Antfia/BLM its for a better society.