HOUSTON — Houston City Council voted Wednesday to increase the amount they're paying defense attorneys in a lawsuit over the botched Harding Street raid.
Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle were killed in the 2019 raid as Houston Police Department officers attempted to serve a no-knock warrant at their home in southeast Houston.
In the wake of the botched raid, family members of the victims filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Houston and former Police Chief Art Acevedo.
On Wednesday, Houston City Council increased the attorney's pay by $1.7 million, bringing the total contract to nearly $3 million.
The raid
Former Houston police officer Steven Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal charge of falsifying records that interfered with a government investigation. The charge is related to the botched Harding Street Raid on Jan. 28, 2019.
Bryant admitted he lied on a report to protect former Officer Gerald Goines, who led the no-knock raid.
After Bryant breached the door, homeowners Tuttle and Nicholas were killed in a shootout with police. Their dog was also killed.
No drugs were found in the house.
Goines and three other officers were shot. From his hospital bed, Goines told investigators he bought drugs from the couple the night before the raid. He said they were tipped by a confidential informant that drugs were being sold by the couple.
According to federal prosecutors Bryant, who wasn’t shot, found the search warrant inside the home, and realized Goines had lied about the drug buy. Bryant then wrote up a false report claiming he was with Goines when Goines bought heroin from the couple the night before the raid. He also claimed heroin found in Goines' car came from the couple, but evidence later showed it was from an earlier raid that Goines also lied about, according to HPD.
Murder charges
Goines was charged with two counts of murder in connection with the raid.
In glowing reviews, the 34-year HPD veteran was praised for utilizing confidential informants “to positive ends” and for his “highest level of safety awareness.”
Court records show Goines was sued twice for his role in officer-involved shootings, but those incidents never show up in his file.
His reviews also never mentioned a written reprimand Goines received in 2002 for not tagging crack cocaine evidence in the police crime lab.
Former Officer Felix Gallegos is also charged with murder. He fired the shot that killed Dennis Tuttle, according to court documents.
Goines, Gallegos and Bryant were allowed to retire after the allegations came to light.
Ten other officers face charges connected to the raid.
Who called 911?
The 911 caller turned out to be woman Goines knows named Patricia Ann Garcia.
Garcia lived just a few houses away on Harding Street. The indictment said she lied to a 911 dispatcher and claimed her daughter got heroin at the victims' house and they were heavily armed, including with machine guns.
Garcia has a long criminal history dating back to 1984, KHOU 11 Investigates learned. Among the arrests was one for cocaine possession by the same narcotics squad involved in the raid.
The fallout
The Harris County District Attorney's Office has dropped more than 150 cases linked to Goines and/or Bryant and they've investigated more than 14,000.
Multiple convictions have been overturned.
Prosecutors say Goines had been lying about drug raids for years to get more overtime.
Families demand answers
The families of Tuttle and Nicholas are suing HPD and demanding answers about what happened before, during and after the deadly raid.
"We’re not going to quit until we get answers,” Nicholas’ brother, John Nicholas said this past January.
He is on a mission to bring justice to his sister and brother-in-law.
“Chief (Art) Acevedo keeps saying, 'We had a reason to be there,'” John Nicholas said. “It’s taken you two years to find that reason? Me and my mother would like to know.”
In a federal civil rights lawsuit against HPD, Nicholas' family claim Squad 15 operated as a criminal organization and tormented Houston residents by depriving their rights to privacy, dignity and safety.
Mike Doyle is representing the Nicholas family.
“This was the culmination of years and years of preying on our communities,” Doyle said when the suit was filed.
The attorney said they’ve been given nothing but empty promises of transparency and accountability.
“They’ve been put in a position where the only way we’re going to get to the bottom or the top of what really is going on and continues to go on in this city and with this police department is by filing a civil action,” Doyle said.
Also, Doyle said the family’s independent investigation revealed Rhogena Nicholas was killed on her couch after she was shot by an HPD officer through the wall. He also said Tuttle never shot at officers.