Posted on 07/25/2019 1:51:53 PM PDT by abb
Two Houston police officers testified Wednesday before a federal grand jury regarding the botched drug raid that left two homeowners dead — the first sign that federal prosecutors are pursuing criminal charges in the controversial case.
Houston Police Officers’ Union Vice President Doug Griffith confirmed that the two officers appeared before the grand jury, though their testimony is secret by law. Grand jury investigations can last weeks or months.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said he was unaware of officers being called by federal authorities to appear before a grand jury.
(Excerpt) Read more at houstonchronicle.com ...
ping
Court filing raises more questions about official narrative of Harding Street raid, seeks to depose police
In March, the Nicholas and Tuttle families begged the agency to walk back its earlier statement in a written letter. That same month, the slain couple’s relatives got their hands on video of the raid and started more closely questioning the official timeline. Particularly troubling to the families and their lawyers were the two lone gunshots about 30 minutes after the raid ended.
Minutes after those final shots, police on the scene repeatedly said, “Both suspects down.”
To Doyle, that didn’t square with the official narrative about a gunbattle that ended “almost as soon as it started,” according to the new court filing.
Questions about those shots - combined with the city’s refusal to release audio from the 911 call - also spurred the decision to hire an independent expert to review the case. An outside team led by former senior agent and forensic consultant for the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service Mike Maloney spent four days in May combing through the trashed home and searching for any unexamined evidence.
Shot that killed woman during Harding St. raid fired outside home, attorney says
By Mario Diaz - Reporter
Posted: 8:06 AM, July 25, 2019
Updated: 3:41 PM, July 25, 2019
KPRC/Nicholas Family Attorney
HOUSTON - Attorneys for the family of Rhogena Nicholas filed a petition Thursday to investigate claims made after a Houston Police Department Jan. 28 at a home on Harding Street.
Nicholas and her husband, Dennis Tuttle, were killed during what police described as a gun battle with Tuttle. Police said Nicholas was killed while she was trying to wrestle a gun away from an officer.
More Headlines
Texas Rangers, investigators return to scene of deadly botched Harding…
New developments in Harding Street investigation: What happened
HPD hands over documents in deadly Harding Street raid as deadline looms
However, attorneys for the Nicholas family call into question many of the details released by the Police Department about how the botched raid unfolded.
In a copy of the complaint obtained by KPRC 2 Investigates, the attorney stated: “The Nicholas Family seek to investigate a potential claim against the City arising from the Harding Street Incident and the untimely loss of Rhogena Nicholas. The Nicholas Family wishes to proceed with further legal action if the claims would be fully justified in fact and law.”
The Petition for Deposition to Investigate Claims is pursuant to Rule 202 of the Texas Rules for Civil Procedure.
DOCUMENT: Read the petition filed by the Nicholas family attorney
Here’s a closer look at what is in the 23-page document, which contained the results of an independent investigation conducted by the family’s attorney.
1. Rhogena Nicholas killed by outside bullet
Nicholas Harding Street report image 1 - 7-25-19
Nicholas Family Attorney
An image taken from a report released by the attorney for the family of Rhogena Nicholas on July 25, 2019, shows the trajectory of the bullet that killed her during a police raid, according to an independent investigation.
The independent forensic investigator hired by the Nicholas family concluded: “Rhogena Nicholas was fatally struck by a bullet from a weapon fired outside the Harding Street home by a person shooting from a position where the shooter could not have seen Ms. Nicholas at the time she was fatally shot.”
The document also included exhibit renderings produced from the investigator’s reconstruction.
2. Two shots fired from within inches of interior walls away from homeowners’ bodies
Nicholas Harding Street report image 2 - 7-25-19
Nicholas Family Attorney
An image taken from a report released by the attorney for the family of Rhogena Nicholas on July 25, 2019, shows a bullet hole in a wall at a Houston home after a deadly police raid.
According to the document: “An unidentified person held a weapon against the inner dining room wall and fired 2 shots into the inner dining room wall towards the kitchen (or within 2-3 inches of the inner dining room wall, as confirmed by lab testing of swab samples) (approximately 21 feet from the front foot and 14 feet from where Dennis Tuttle was recovered).”
Considering these two bullet holes, the family is also requesting an inventory of locations and cartridges spent in the raid, as well as “medical and ballistic documentation of the wounds sustained by the HPD personnel during the Harding Street Incident by gunshot or otherwise, as well as ballistic materials that may have been recovered during medical intervention and from protective vests worn during the Harding Street incident.”
The family goes on to request additional inventories involving the weapons used and bullet counts. Attorneys stated, “Given the indications that the City’s story does not line up with the physical facts at the Harding Street Home, the Nicholas Family believes the Court has more than sufficient basis to order the depositions requested to investigate the wrongful death, civil rights, and other claims arising from the Harding Street Incident.”
3. Family’s request for 3 specific depositions
The family is requesting for the deposition of a representative of the Houston Police Department, the former head of HPD’s Narcotics Division Capt. Paul Follis and Lt. Marsha Todd, the supervisor over HPD’s Narcotics Squad 15, which included officers Gerald Goines and Stephen Bryant.
Near the end of the lawsuit, the attorneys representing the family wrote, “The need to look further into the actual practices within HPD that resulted in the Harding Street Incident has never been more urgent.”
test
That situation happened because the victims were poor and didn’t know anybody important.
Two cop gunshots 30 min AFTER the Houston “drug raid” ping
I still cannot see a motive in all this. was it all just a wrong address thing?
Particularly troubling to the families and their lawyers were the two lone gunshots about 30 minutes after the raid ended.
Minutes after those final shots, police on the scene repeatedly said, “Both suspects down.”
In other words, They EXECUTED THEM!!!
Hopefully that's because his name is on the grand jurys list.
Thank you for your updates wrt this ongoing travesty.
I do not think it was even remotely a wrong address.
The cop lied to get a warrant to raid the place.
The article also mentioned 2- (22) other cases were tossed. Dollars to doughnuts they were all cases where the cop lied as well.
A raid like this is a great way to eliminate a witness. Or just anyone a cop doesn’t like.
And it is probably what they did.
Fixed it.....
Small potatoes next to Waco.
Well, both Wacos really.
From the report excerpts it sounds more like they fired two shots from one of the victims guns into the wall. So as to have evidence that the residents fired on the cops and the cops responded.
It’s not so much that Acevedo is unaware as much as he is “woke” and is an ardent anti-2A-er as evidenced by his actions and statements during his tenure as Austin’s police chief....the exact qualities that attracted Sylvester Turner to him in the first place.....
Attorneys dispute police account, say woman was shot from outside her home
They said police lied about black tar heroin being sold at the southeast Houston home.
Author: Matt Dougherty
Published: 4:14 PM CDT July 25, 2019
Updated: 4:32 PM CDT July 25, 2019
Need to use this case to get him out of office!
Okay fine whatever I just want to know is he a ‘gentleman’...
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