Crime & Safety

Prosecutors Dismiss 2 Narcotics Cases Involving Embattled Cop

In the interest of justice, two cases involving narcotics officer Gerald Goines were dismissed by prosecutors this week, officials said.

HOUSTON — Harris County prosecutors have dismissed a second felony narcotics cases associated with embattled narcotics investigator Gerald Goines.

The dismissals came less than a week after Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announce that her office would be looking at as many as 1,400 cases involving Goines, including 27 that were currently active.

Goines, who was called a hero early on in the investigation, is under investigation for his role in a botched narcotics raid that left two people dead and injured himself and four other HPD officers.

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Goines is accused of lying in an official affidavit that was used to obtain a no-knock warrant, amid allegations that a confidential informant had purchased black tar heroin at a home at 7815 Harding Street, where Dennis Tuttle, 59, and his wife Rhogena Nicholas, 58 lived.

Both were killed in a Jan. 28 rain on their home. Questions were raised almost immediately by neighbors, and then by investigators after a search of the home after the shooting yielded no evidence of black tar heroin, and only small amounts of marijuana and cocaine.

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The case against Goines grew after the confidential informant named in the affidavit denied ever being at the Tuttle home.

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